Things Only Get Better With Time
by jesstrue
Summary: A/H, Sookie & Eric start off as friends before they realize it's convenient for them to be together, not only for the sake of Eric's younger sister, but for themselves.
1. Chapter 1

Owning a bar was hard. Especially when you're usual patrons treated it as a nightclub; which I wouldn't have minded, if it meant them not vomiting up a hundred dollars worth of alcohol in the middle of the dance floor. The business was pretty hectic lately, my sister, Pam and I used to co-own to place. But she just got engaged to some Texas guy, she moved over there, and left me with the burden of fully owning the most popular night attraction in Shreveport. I shouldn't complain, I love being in charge of a business, I love _the _business, I love the staff and most of all, the benefit of meeting drunken girls every night who want to jump my bones. Not that I slept with all of the horn bags that came in, but I'd had my fair share.

I didn't really enjoy the one night stands as much as I used to. It might have something to do with the fact that I'm 26 and my sex drive is slowing down with time, or it might just be because drunk, random women aren't as classy as I'd prefer them to be. I'd rather someone who drank a bottle of wine for the taste than the ones who came into the bar shooting absinthe, purely to get as drunk as possible.

I was definitely getting older.

My sister, Pam, was 24 and already getting married. Personally, I thought she was crazy. She was only 24 years old and already getting hitched. Just 3 years ago, she thought she swung the other way sexually, and somewhere between then and now, she fell in love with Stan, and decided to give up her life in Louisiana, for love. The staff had already taken bets on how long the relationship/ future marriage would last, and I would be in pocket $200 if it was less than 18 months, but I secretly hoped things would work out with Stan. He seemed like a good guy. H e had a steady job and good genes; he made Pam happy in all the area's that mattered. It's just Pam wasn't know for stability in situations. So no one had faith in the couple.

Since she had left work load had increased a bit. I only went into the bar every few nights, but them nights weren't as much fun as they were when she was around. I now had extra forms to fill out, more pays to distribute, more finances to sort and more stupid bookings to organize. My sister had loved hiring out the bar some nights for hens/buck parties. Birthday bashes and themed nights for certain charities. They were great to attend to, but extremely annoying to set up. I missed Pam more than ever; a group of women were organizing a friend's 24th party. It was a surprise, and she didn't drink much apparently. Why they would book a party at a bar for a person that doesn't drink makes me question the logic of people, but they were paying good money and knew what they wanted so it could have been worse. I guessed from the decorations they wanted, this woman was either a house-wife or a food-junkie, since everything ordered through us had some sort of food print on it, they chose the most expensive bakery in town to bake the cake and they wanted the staff to wear "cupcake" hats?

Everything in total cost $1986, the cake itself being almost two hundred dollars. They were big spenders compared to the last birthday we had. It was a man's 40th, and his family couldn't even cough up a thousand dollars for the guy. I didn't organize it since Pam did all the work, but I know the guest list had 120 people. This 24th has 45.

I got through the planning alright, when it came to setting everything up on the day it was hectic though. There were napkins with cakes printed on them everywhere. Yellow balloons with fruits on them everywhere else. I also told the group of ladies, that I'd pick their stupid expensive cake up for them as well, so I had to leave mid-decorating to drive an hour to the Bon Temps and an hour back.

The bakery was a little place called "Hale's" and I'd been there before. They weren't all that expensive, although I'd seen some of the wedding cakes and could understand why they could charge ridiculous amounts of money for them. They were perfect. Whenever my sister and Stan booked the date for their wedding, I was definitely buying them a wedding cake from Hale's. The simplest cake on display at the moment was a two level tiered wedding cake with intricate swirls around the base and tropical flowers made out of icing on the top. It was amazing, and it was less than a quarter of the cost of the cake I was picking up.

I dinged the bell for service just as a short blonde woman came out from the back of the bakery; she had flour on her cheek and wore a smile that could have been fake seeing as it was so large. And lovely for that matter. Her blue eyes looked up at me as she asked me if she could help me. Her eyes looked familiar, but so many people wore contacts nowadays, I didn't really think much of it.

"I'm here to pick up an order," I said and smiled back at her. She seemed dumbfounded for a second, just gaping up at me as if she wasn't expecting me to reply. But she blinked quickly and gulped as she regained her professionalism.

"Sure, what's the name of your order?"

The stupid women from the party organizing had given me the name of the order, but I had hoped she wouldn't ask for it. I was hoping that since Bon Temps was such a small town, I would have been the only order for today, and the baker would just assume me to the expensive cake. But no, instead I had to say the embarrassing cake order's name, and look like an idiot in front of the quite attractive service girl/ baker.

"Surprise." I said in a mutual voice.

As I expected, the corners of her mouth turned up a little more than what they already were, and she stifled a laugh with a fake cough. But I didn't expect her to open the little book in front of her, flick through a few pages and hold the book out to me. On the page was a picture of a giant cake with tiny little cupcake decorations surrounding every surface. The icing was predominantly purple, but there was a heap of blue, pink and yellow in with the icing as well. Underneath the picture was the cake order, and a place for me to sign my name. I gaped at the cake again. It really was a 'surprise', to anyone I guess, even me. I didn't think it was overpriced anymore, if anything, this cake should be closer to 500 instead of 2.

"Did you make this?" I asked.

Her blue eyes lit up and her back straightened up a little. "Yeah I did, it took double the amount of time to make because of all the stupid cupcakes around it, but I guess you knew what you wanted when you ordered it, it saved me having to decide on things like height and what color the flowers should be, everything was specific, and the time spent was worth it, it looks better in person." She winked and walked out the back of the store. I signed my name under the picture of the 'surprise cake' and had a flip through the book, admiring all of the blonde baker's creations. I lost some of my confidence when I saw a snowman cake; it would have been around 2 feet high and looked exactly like the snowmen you see in the movies. I'd always thought I was creative with my own concoction of cocktails, and they were pretty popular to be honest. But the different cakes that blondie came up with put my drink making skills to shame.

She skipped back into the room with a box in her hands that seemed almost half the side of her. Considering she looked 5'5, it was a _big_ box.

"Can I help you with anything else?" she asked, placing the box on the counter and regaining her smile after she put the weight down.

"Do you have any lemon meringues?" I asked her.

"They'll be out in just 10 minutes; you can wait if you want,"

I smiled. I'm sure it looked goofy, but I love lemon meringue pies, and they were best served warm. In my opinion anyways. I paid what I owed her on card, and made some small talk about the bakery, which I learnt, was hers, and I put an order in for a snowman cake, since Christmas was 3 weeks away and Pam would be home for it, giving me an excuse to make a roast and buy a cake since I can't do that when I spend it alone.

"So what do you do for a living… Eric?" she questioned, her eyes dancing. I hadn't told her my name, so she must have read it of my order sheet. I gulped, owning a bar seemed like the best job in the world to drunken girls actually in a bar, but to street patrons, it didn't always seem that way. I was always embarrassed to mention it when I wasn't working.

"I own a bar, in Shreveport." I answered. Looking at my feet, hoping she wasn't Jewish or Catholic and I wouldn't get shunned on sight for owning a sinful business.

But she didn't gasp or call me sinner. She just nodded and talked about business, the highs and lows of the industry and how I handled having staff.

"I've always wanted another baker," she admitted, shaking her head a little, making her long wavy ponytail on top of her head bob up and down in a mesmerizing way. "I've been getting more customers, and I'm making way more than what I can ever spend, it's just I don't think many people would wake up at 3 in the morning and feel like beating eggs."

This poor woman, she woke up at 3 in the morning. 3!

I was usually just getting to bed at 3 on weekends. An hour or two less on weekday nights. I couldn't imagine doing the opposite, and waking up in the awful a.m hours.

She rambled some more about her hours, but I was still pretty miffed about her wake up time.

"What bar do you own, Eric?" she asked.

"The Chase, on Fourth Street"

"No shit," she muttered. "You're Pam's brother."

"No shit." I replied.

She burst into laughter. Actually, I think it was more hysterics than laughter. Tears were falling from her eyes.

"I don't get it." I stated after a good 20 seconds had passed. She was starting to regain herself, but the tears were still falling from her eyes. I handed her my handkerchief from my pocket and took it, blotting the corners of her eyes. Another giggle burst though her lips as she looked up at me when she took it, but it was actually quite adorable. She was the only person I knew who didn't have a morphed face when they laughed, she was still insanely attractive.

"I was Pam's best friend when we were seniors, I was the one who you puked on in sophomore year, and I was the one who gave Pam the loan to start the bar." She giggled again. "You're Eric _Northman_"

Oh god. I remembered her. The petite blonde friend of Pam's who always stole my spot on the lounge. She was the pretty friend of Pam's who I puked on after a Frat party. She was the friend of Pam's who was kind and smart enough to loan and invest in The Chase.

She was also the friend of my sister's who was going to be the maid of honor at the wedding. Pam's best friend. Sookie Stackhouse.

I remembered her clearly now. She was 2 years younger than me, the same age as my sister. She'd always had long, blonde hair. She'd always had the same sparkling blue eyes, the same as her brothers. Her brother was an ass from what I remember, he was the biggest man-slut anyone had ever seen at college, yet he was also the best football player too. I'd never liked Jason Stackhouse. The Stackhouse siblings' parents had died when they were young, so they're grandma raised them. But she got sick while they were in college, and eventually died. I went to her funeral; the whole of the Renard Parish did, since she was peach as punch. But Jason Stackhouse turned up drunk. He was cussing at his sister and blamed her for his grandma's passing, told her that he never wanted to see her again. I remember feeling awful sorry for Sookie after that, he was the only family she had left, so she and Pam were extra close after that.

Then Jason died in a work accident, and she literally had no family left. This was only a few years back, but she got an awful lot of money from his life insurance, and she loaned a bit to Pam for The Chase. From what I recall, Sookie Stackhouse had always been lovely to everyone, I remember liking her at some point in time, I think every person who had a penis did, yet she showed no interest in any of them. One time when she stayed at our house, she made everyone ice cream sundaes. When she put extra ice cream in my bowl, I figured she'd noticed me and I threw her a wink. She'd just laughed however, and told me she put more in because I was a guy, and guys eat more.

Sookie Stackhouse. _The_ Sookie Stackhouse. I guffawed. I'd always known she was a good cook, but I never figured she'd open her own cake store. It made sense that she did though. She made some mean brownies back in high school.

The oven around the back of the store dinged, and her rushing out there gave me an opportunity to take the giant cake box out to the car, and pull out my cell phone.

After about 2 rings, Pam answered.

"This better be good, Blondie. I'm just about to get naked for a Swiss massage." Was her answer. How charming of her.

"When was the last time you talked to Sookie?" I inquired. I didn't really want to have a conversation with my sister when she didn't have clothes on.

"Two nights ago, I'm seeing her tonight as a matter of fact, why do you ask?"

"How are you seeing her tonight?"

"Catching up with friends, why do you ask?" she repeated.

"I'm at Hale's now. I just thought I'd let you know I just bumped into you're maid of honor." I heard Pam mumble something, but it was obviously being mumbled to herself, and that was normal for Pam. But what wasn't normal was a pause from her at the other end of the line.

"Make sure to get a lemon meringue, they're to die for." she said after a while.

"Thanks Pam." I knew by the recommendation that she was about to say goodbye. That was her way of things, everyone knew it.

"I love you, Eric. Goodbye." And the phone clicked. Weird. Pam was never one to say I love you.

And she said she was seeing Sookie tonight, which meant that Pam was in Shreveport or Bon Temps. Maybe Monroe, but that was a fair way to travel, so I highly doubted the possibility of Monroe. But she hadn't said anything to me, or made any plans to come in and see me, or the bar.

I walked back into the shop and there was another box on the counter, it had my name drawn on it with curly writing and a smiley face next to it. I guess Sookie was busy, so I just took the box and drove back to the bar. Letting the smell of warm lemon meringue fill my car, and my lungs.

The rest of the party organization went smoothly. One of the bartenders, Heidi, blew up the balloons, and moved the bar chairs around into a proper formation. And the lame food decorations were actually looking really good when everything was finished. By 7pm that night, 40 people filled the bar, enjoying cocktails and waiting for the birthday girl to show. I was outside, acting as the bouncer for any pub crawlers for the beginning of the night, and then I took over the bartending duties later on.

When a limousine pulled up outside the door, I knew it would be the birthday girl and her fussy friends. I also remembered that the girl didn't drink very much, so she probably wouldn't enjoy the party inside. Sure enough, 6 pairs of high hells clattered on the footpath as they came up closer to me. I immediately recognized all of the faces. There were 4 of the fussy party organizers, all looking quite cold in their vibrant cocktail dresses and eager to get inside, into the warmth. The 5th face was of my sister, who looked quite relaxed with a smirk on her face when she saw me, she mouthed something to me that I didn't understand and blew me a kiss, I was guessing she was already drunk. The 6th face was Sookie. She looked annoyed and kind of pissed off. She was wearing a white cocktail dress that didn't show as much skin as her friends. But her hair was definitely more elaborate, and her makeup was applied perfectly. She looked up at me with shock, and her annoyed expression became happy for a second. The 5 girls clattered inside with their high heels and cheers came from inside. I laughed and leaned against the building, but Sookie didn't laugh.

She had kept her gaze with me pretty steady for a girl of her height. I was at least 6'5, and she was easily a foot shorter than me, maybe 8 inches, if you included her shoes tonight. She sighed and looked down.

"Whenever I go out, I always get forced to down at least 20 shots, and I always end up with a hangover so horrible the next day, I promise to never drink again. So I really don't want a hangover tomorrow."

Poor girl. That explains the friend who hardly ever drinks.

"And most years, Pam usually saves me by saying the bar bookings are full, or drinking my shots for me. But this year she turns up drunk. So I know that's not going to happen."

I stood up straight again and stepped towards her.

"C'mon." I said and beckoned her towards me. I put my arm around her shoulders and walked her into the bar. Sure enough the lights were off and there were drunken giggles coming from the darkness. I led Sookie over to the light switch and held me hand out so she could do the honors of flicking the switch.

The predicted "SURPRISE" came from all around her, and it was actually really loud for such a small group of people. But she managed to look genuinely shocked to see everyone, and did the rounds of hugging everyone and thanking them. I handed her a wine glass of lemonade during the process and she mouthed thanks to me, before moving onto the next person. I went outside and continued my bouncer duties after that. I knew there would be at least 10 of the usual patrons who forgot about it being closed to the public.

Sure enough, the ten people I suspected would turn up, came around, all before 10 pm. I gave them directions to the nightclub on Second Street.

Sookie came outside, just as I was about to go in, she looked tired, and she probably was if she woke up before dawn today, and then worked, and then went out.

"Is today you're birthday?" I asked.

"Nope, tomorrow."

"So you're not working tomorrow I hope."

She sat down on the floor besides my feet and took her shoes off. I didn't blame her, they looked painful to wear. I sat down beside her and started examining the stiletto. Bright red, strappy and at least a 3 inch heel. She was a size 6, and she wore gel pads on her souls. Smart girl.

"Thank god, no. I finally have time to make something different for dessert, instead of just cutting myself some stupid cake." She muttered as she spread her toes out to stretch them. It seemed such a normal thing to say, and I guessed it was coming from someone who made cakes for a living. But I'd never met anyone in my life who complained about having cake for dessert. I smirked at her.

"Well, after you have the birthday cake you made yourself, I'll get Pam to drop you off some extra waffles tomorrow morning if she's still in town."

She groaned. "That would be awesome," her stomach made a little rumble. I handed her the shoe that I'd been admiring and stood up, holding my hand out for her to take when she put her shoes on. She took my hand to help her get up and held onto it. She started walking in the opposite direction of the party.

"Where are you taking me?"

She giggled. "Chinese, I don't think people will notice I'm gone for another hour, and I'm hungry." She knew where she was going, so I let her lead the way. She skipped and hummed to herself, making comments about random smells in the air, and strange people we passed. She kept hold of my hand and it wasn't weird or awkward at all surprisingly. She told me how she was grateful I had gone to her grandmother's funeral, and then her brothers. We also joked about her being in my spot on our lounge.

"But I always sat in that spot when I went over your house. It didn't matter if you were home or not, it was my little cushion." And she made her face go hard. I chuckled at her.

"I sat there too, when you were over or not. It was my place and still is, regardless."

I felt her eyes burn into my face. I turned to look at her. As soon as she had my attention, she took my face into her hands, and bought my face down more or less to her level.

And she fluttered her eyelashes. Oh god.

Her lips pouted. Oh god.

She was beautiful. I already knew that. But looking at her face directly, instead of looking down on her was amazing. She was even more so.

She inhaled, and her chest puffed out more than it was already. Oh god. She had a rack. She had a rack and a half.

"I think you owe me that cushion, since you threw up on me that one time." She breathed. "And what do you mean; it still is you're spot?"

"It's my couch now, and I think that since I clean it once a fortnight, I deserve to sit wherever I like."

She stepped into my chest and breathed out; she pressed her nose against mine.

Wow. I wanted to look down, but her eyes were perfect. They just kept looking into mine, and I didn't want to look away.

"I think you'd give me the spot if I rewarded you with a lemon meringue or two." With that she quickly kissed the tip of my nose and stepped away again. All I could do was nod once as I stepped towards her again. She winked at me, and I realized what she'd done. Seduction.

I reached out and grabbed her hand again, placing it inside my own, it fit perfectly. We got to the Chinese restaurant and ordered. I chose Black bean beef, as I always did. She chose honey chicken. When it came to deciding if we wanted to dine in take-away, she chose take away. I have to say, I was disappointed. I was looking forward to being able to look at her face over dinner; I think she saw the look in my face as she smiled at me. "We'll dine out instead, is that okay?" I nodded at her to let her know it was fine.

She took her credit card out from her dress somewhere and I was wondering where it came from before I noticed she was about to swipe her card to pay for the food. I grabbed her hand quickly and took the American Express piece of plastic off of her. I took out my wallet and swiped my own through the machine, signed and looked back at her. She was scowling at me, but you could tell it wasn't serious. The look on her lips didn't reach her eyes.

"I'll buy the champagne then," was all she said. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"You drink champagne?"

She gasped. "Oh my lord, I'm sorry. I can get you beer, or maybe some whiskey. I didn't think of asking what you wanted."

Oh no. She thought I meant I wanted something different. "No, Sookie. I was only asking if you're actually going to have a glass of champagne yourself." I shook my head at the girl. "I thought you didn't drink."

She squeezed the hand that I was holding. "I don't drink _much_" she corrected. She let go of my hand and started to run her fingers through her hair, unweaving the invisible knots that the wind had made during the night. Her hair looked perfect anyways. "But I'm sure you'd carry me home if I drank too much anyways. You look like you could handle my weight unlike your sister."

"How much do you weigh, Miss Stackhouse? You look pretty heavy to me.." I started, but she playfully slapped my arm.

"You hush now, I'm only 111 pounds."

I did hush. I could almost lift 200 on the bench press at gym. "You're tiny,"

"And you're gigantic." She teased. "I'm guessing 6'4 in height. 190 pounds."

"You'll never know." Was all I said. She didn't like that. The rest of the time we spent waiting for dinner and buying champagne was her guessing my height and weight. Eventually she got my height right. A lovely 6'5 to be precise. But when it came to my weight she had no idea what so ever. I ended up telling her as we got closer to The Chase she slowed down and took smaller steps.

"Is the park still at the end of the street?" she asked with a nervous expression. I nodded in her direction. "Good, we're having a picnic then."

Sure enough, we sat on the grass, eating out Chinese with the rough wooden chopsticks provided, and drinking the warm champagne straight out of the bottle since we didn't have any glasses. But we ate in silence, and it was comfortable.

"Do you know what 's wrong with Pam?" she blurted out in between a mouthful of my black-bean and a swig of champagne. I shook my head.

"Nope. But she had a massage today. I thought she only has massages when she's stressed."

"I guess she'll tell us what's wrong when she feels like it. She's not one to keep secrets."

It was true. Sookie knew Pam better than me. Better than anyone as for that matter. Pam was blunt with everyone, she was predictable, and she _hated _secrets. She's killed every single pet fish I've ever had, and owned up to it. She's worn my underwear, and told me. She even tells me when it's her time of the month. It might not sound like a lot, but when she doesn't live at home, and lives in a different state as you, it creeps me out.

We finished our food and walked back to the party. Sure enough, no one noticed the brief hour we spent away, and things moved on once we were inside again, as if we never left. I was on bartending duties, and Sookie actually drank the house champagne. She blew out her candles and cut the cake, but she refused to eat it since she knew exactly how much sugar went into it. But she was kind enough to bring me a slice. A huge man sized slice. And just as people were starting to leave at around 1am, I noticed just how much Sookie had to drink and I knew I'd have to carry her out to the taxi.

I asked Pam if she wanted to stay with me for the night and she agreed. Even though I hadn't seen her have a drink all night, she was acting really weird. Not as weird as she usually is when she's been drinking. But I'd seen her with sunstroke one time, and she was hallucinating in her sleep, the next day she's been a completely different person, she'd been completely mellow and oddly quiet. She was like that tonight, so maybe she'd just lain out in the sun for too long yesterday and didn't realize.

Pam told me she was staying with Sookie while she was here, and they would just split a cab on the way home, so I offered Sookie the other spare room at my house, to save her the full fare. I could drive them both into Bon Temps in the morning.

So sure enough, by 1:30 everyone had left and I closed everything up. Pam and Sookie were in the car, Sookie was half asleep in the back seat, and Pam was sitting silently in the passenger side, just staring into space. My house was on the opposite side of Shreveport, She didn't say a word the whole drive, and when we got home. She simply took my keys and the leftover cake and let herself inside, knowing that I'd have to lift Sookie and carry her inside.

I put her in the third bedroom, knowing Pam would choose the largest for herself, and I went to gather them both towels and spare toothbrushes for the morning. When I came into Sookie's room, Pam was in bed beside her, pulling the sheets up to cover them both fully.

"She's going to be hung over in the morning, and she's not going to like it." Spoke Pam softly, careful not to wake the sleeping blonde next to her.

"I'll have some Aspirin out, and I'll put some extra coffee on for her."

She smiled weakly. "You're a good brother, and a good host. You'll make some lucky girl happy one day." As she said this she looked down at Sookie and looked up to me expectedly.

"You'll make a good wife to Stan. No matter what people think, Pam." I said back to her. She laughed one of jolly laughs.

"I have no doubt about that, brother. But you should really start looking for a wife. I hear that marriage is a wonderful thing in today's society. Good for the soul."

Since she recommended something, oddly enough, marriage. I knew it was the end of the 2 second conversation. "Goodnight, Pam."

"Ditto, Eric."


	2. Chapter 2

**Sookie POV.**

After seeing Eric at my work yesterday, I remembered what spending time with men felt like. The conversation was so simple, and yet oddly enjoyable. And it was good to see him doing so well. I knew he'd be successful when he graduated, and I'd known he was going to co-own The Chase with Pam, but I thought that when she sold her half of the business, he would too. But instead, she sold it to him. That was nice.

Pam had flown into town the morning that I'd seen him. She had come into see me at work, and I'd given her my house key to make herself at home in my old farmhouse. She'd obviously accepted after she told me she was taking me out to dinner for my birthday that night. I hated my birthday since Gran had died. She always made me fruit salad and iced tea. It was always at the beginning of summer, so the fruit was lovely. But since she had died, I'd spent the time with Pam, just the two of us. She was my scapegoat for anything major occurring; I didn't want a proper birthday without Gran around.

She'd been acting strange when I got home from work, she was cleaning, _my_ house. She could barely clean her own without complaining about breaking her nails or being a domestic house-wife. But then again, she was a house-wife at the moment. Well not exactly, but she was a house-fiancée. She'd bought me a dress for dinner, and I was glad it wasn't as short or as bright as her own. And she'd bought me gel pads to put in the hells she got me. She was a godsend. I noticed she wore them herself for a change.

But she awfully relaxed. Usually when it was someone's birthday, or when it was coming close to Christmas, which it was, she was usually chirpy and excited for the holiday season/ event. But here she was, doing her makeup in my bathroom mirror, with a neutral expression on her face. I did my makeup and my hair. I didn't normally do much, but I used every product I had tonight, and put gentle curls in my hair. Pam always looked good, and she knew it as she pouted in the mirror. But she wolf-whistled at me when I was finished, so I knew I applied everything correctly.

A limo pulled up in front of the house when it was time for the reservation, but it wasn't empty inside. Linda and the rest of the college group were inside, and apparently they were having dinner as well. I wasn't happy. Linda and such were the same age as Pam and I, except they were all married and I think Pauline had a one year old at home. Turns out she did. Now that Pam was engaged, I was the only single one in the group. I can say the feeling isn't that great being the only available person in a group. I shouldn't feel bad, seeing as how I'm only 23. Well, 24 tomorrow.

They chatted away while Pam and I sat in silence. She was happily staring off into the distance; something was definitely off with her. She hadn't even asked me if her hair was okay, or needed reassurance to her appearance. She was silent.

I saw Eric standing at the front of a building, the Neon's at the front identified the building as "The Chase." And we stopped, right in front of him. I guess this wasn't just a 'dinner' then. He gave the Linda posse a sharp nod and looked surprised to see his sister. She blew him a kiss and muttered something to him, she smiled at her and then turned to me. I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I'd forgotten what being eye fucked felt like, and I liked attention. Well from the tall blonde anyways. I smiled up at him; his blue eyes were warm when they looked at me. The group walked inside without even looking back at me, so I was guessing tonight wasn't about me personally, I heard a big cheer, followed by laughing, and Eric laughed as well.

I told him about how I get my ultimate hangovers every time I get dragged out like this. I told him how Pam saved me every year, and all he did was drag me inside. As I guessed, it wasn't a dinner at all. The pub had been hired out for the night and filled with corny decorations that rotated around a food theme. Cute. I started to hug everyone that was there, there were only a few college friends, a few high school acquaintances. The rest of the crowd included local people, and a few regulars from the shop that I liked. My old boss and workmates were there as well, I thanked everyone there. Somewhere in between the beginning of the greetings and the end, Eric had passed me a wine glass. I smelt it and it was just lemonade so I thanked him. But he disappeared during the night again. After a few hours of meeting and greeting everyone that came, they seemed to forget me again, and my feet were getting sore so I went outside to take a breather.

He asked me if it was my birthday and no, it was tomorrow so I said so. He made sure I wasn't working and I was thankful I wasn't. I could finally make a dessert instead of cutting myself a piece of leftover cake.

He offered to bring me waffles and I think my heart melted at the thought of the crispy squares. With maple syrup. I think I could actually handle a hangover tomorrow if I was getting waffles. I'd taken my shoes off and he was mindlessly playing with them. But he all of a sudden gave them back to me after my stomach made a little flip. He helped me stand up when I had the brilliant idea to go and get Chinese for dinner.

He paid for dinner, and he'd put me in a good mood, so I bought a bottle of champagne. We made our own little picnic and ate in comfort. Well compared to what I remembered of Eric it was comfort. Compared to the 16 year old version of Eric, he was a neat eater. He didn't talk or chew with his mouth open. I remember that was the one flaw he had when I first met him. If it wasn't for his bad table manners, I could have married Pam's brother straight out of high school.

But I hate bad table manners. That's one trait I got from Gran. She always used to scold Jason when he burped at the table. The table was a place for eating, not for cussing or conversing.

When we got back after our small park picnic, I did the cake ritual of blowing out 24 candles and cutting the first piece, not touching the bottom of the plate with the knife. Eric was back behind the bar, and he handed me a glass of champagne, I accepted graciously, since I was enjoying the bubbles for a change, and I don't remember much after that.

I woke up the next morning to the sound of someone being sick in the bathroom across the hall. I also noted that the other half of my bed had been slept in, the covers thrown back. I would have been more stressed out if I didn't recognize the heaving as Pam's, and I knew she would have slept next to me. I stepped out of bed, dreading the hang over head spin. But I was fine. I should drink champagne more often if this is how my body handles it.

I went into the bathroom to see the sight of Pamela crouched over the toilet, her head in the bowl. I saw the clock and it was only 7 am. As strange as Pam was acting last night, I hadn't seen her with a drink in her hand all night, in fact. She only had bottles water. She was just being sick in the morning. Morning sickness.

"You're pregnant," I whispered to her.

She looked up to me with worry in her eyes. "My body hates this baby." She whispered back, and burst into tears. I bend down a hugged her, tight for that matter. She gripped back at me sobbing her heart out.

I don't know how long we were like that, but she eventually let me go to throw up again, I held her hair back and handed her a towel.

"Don't tell Eric," she begged, her eyes pleading. "We'll tell him at the wedding. I want it in a month's time, before I get fat."

"Not my secret to tell," I insisted. She needed a shower, and I took that as the perfect opportunity to go and find the coffee in this place. It was easy enough to find, kettle was on the bench, coffee and sugar were on the shelf above the stove. There was fresh milk in the fridge. I put the kettle on, and searched the cupboard for ingredients to make breakfast. I found what I needed for my much craved waffles, or if Eric didn't have a waffle iron, I'd settle for pancakes.

Sure enough, there was a giant waffle iron, and I started mixing the batter. By the time the batter was ready, the kettle had boiled. So I made 3 cups of coffee, and set them at the table. I'd poured the batter into the giant iron, and I was glad it made 4 at a time.

I guessed that Eric's bedroom was the one closest to the kitchen, it seemed important, and separate from the rest of the rooms. I opened the door a peek, and sure enough, the giant 6'5 blonde was sprawled across his California King. I set the coffee down on his dresser, and sat down next to him.

I lightly ran my fingers up and down his arm, and the only movement and he got goose bumps almost instantly, yet he didn't move. I ran my fingers across his neckline, and his nose twitched. I have to say it was the cutest thing. This man could scare the pants off anyone because of his tall and muscular frame, yet his nose twitched like a rabbits would. I didn't really dare to put my hands anywhere under the blankets, just in case he slept naked. So I just bounced on the bed a little and called his name out in a sing-song voice until his eyes fluttered open. Oh my god.

If he wasn't attractive enough in the normal daylight hours, and at night, he was even more so in the morning. His slight stubble made him look even more masculine, and his not light, not tanned skin looked flawless against his plain white sheets. Not to mention those blue eyes that pierced into mine.

"Coffee?" I offered, and pointed towards the dresser. He mumbled something incoherent and yawned, but sat up a little. "Breakfast's coming,"

I jumped up with a smile on my face, and skipped out the door.

"Sookie," his voice called out from his bed. I poked my head through the door, and fluttered my eyes at him.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Good morning," he yawned, and half staggered out of his bed. I didn't keep my head through the door long enough to see if he slept naked. I was curious to find out though.

I finished up on the waffles in record time, and Eric and Pam emerged at the same time. They grinned at each other and exchanged pleasantries, while Eric helped me find the plated and cutlery. I filled the sink up with hot water and detergent, for the upcoming dishes.

"Feeling alright, I guess Sookie?" asked Eric from across the table. He had a smug look on his face, so I was taking that as sarcasm.

"Yep, Life's peachy."

Pam sniggered at us. I noticed she looked thinner than she usually did as she sat next to me. I thought women were supposed to gain weight during they're pregnancy, not lose it. She was right when she said that her body didn't like the baby. It despised the child.

I wondered whether she would have a boy or girl. And if it would call me Aunt Sookie or not. Eric and Pam were talking about something across the table, but I barely noticed. I heard wedding, and I didn't want to hear it. I was happy that Pam was getting married. But when she did, that would mean that I was the only one from our clique that was unwed. And one of the few without babies. I didn't mind that I was the only one without it, I never gave into peer pressure. It was just kind of depressing that I hadn't found my own slice of happiness as of yet. I'd love to have a kid. I'd call it Hunter if it was a boy, and Holly if it was a girl. I'd have dinner on table for the child every night, and I'd have it in nice clothes. I wondered what Pam would be like, as a mother. But I knew she'd be fine.

Pam had changed her mind about what sex she prefers at least 50 times. But she'd always wanted babies. She took Home economics in high school, she was a fantastic babysitter and she looked after herself perfectly. If it was true that mothers loved their children more than themselves, then I was sure that any child of Pamela Northman would be spoiled.

I zoned into the conversation unwillingly. Eric was looking at me oddly; he had realized that I wasn't paying attention. But Pam was going over wedding plans. She wanted her wedding to be New Years, so 27 days. She wanted a green and white wedding, which I thought was odd, but she had green eyes so it was a nice idea. Which a green theme, she could have white daisies everywhere, and no one would think anything of it. At least she knew what she wanted.

I started to do the dishes once everyone had finished, but Eric took over.

"You not only made me coffee, but you also made me breakfast. I'm on dishes." I puffed but gave up willingly. No chef liked doing dishes. Pam dried. She'd gotten happier since this morning. I guess telling me had lightened the mood a little in front of me.

Eric looked at her strangely, but said nothing. He would then glance at my face every so often while I was thinking about the bean-sized baby in her belly. I laughed at his confused expression. Pam refused the next 3 cups of coffee, and sullenly drank water instead, while Eric and I challenged each other on how long we could hold our bladder after 4 cups of coffee. I lost, of course.

While Eric was showering however, Pam decided she wanted to watch a movie so she curled up on the couch watching some really corny movie with Steve Carrel in it.

It was the couch. The all-famous well missed couch of the Northman's parents. I felt the cushion of the second cushion, and sure enough, it was a bouncy as I remembered.

I curled up on it (yes, I could fit on one cushion) and looked over to Pam. She was sleeping with her legs tucked into her body. Like a child. She looked so comfy, just looking at her made me sleepy myself. Even better, Pam had muted the movie before she dozed off, so I couldn't focus on what they were saying to stay awake. So I fell asleep.

When I woke up, I was half way across scooted across my favourite couch cushion, and Eric's huge, heavy arm was draped across me. He was laying behind me. And he was wide awake.

"You stole my spot again, Miss Stackhouse." He breathed, into the back of my neck as well, giving me goose bumps all over my body.

"First in, best dressed"

He snorted at me. And I sat up, I really needed a shower, I probably smelt like champagne and morning breath.

"How long were you lying behind me anyways?" I asked. I rolled over so I could see his reaction. He blinked innocently.

"An hour. I was only meant to be here for 2 minutes, but this spot mixed with your warmth was a pretty good combination. I couldn't get up." He flashed his teeth at me, they were perfectly straight, and they gleamed. "We should just share this spot by the way, I prefer it with you."

My heart skipped. How flattering. My most famous memory with Eric was fighting with him over this spot, and not even 5 years later, he was offering to split it. He'd finally learnt how to share.

I smiled at him and stood up. Not only did I need a shower, I also needed to pee. I hoped the bathroom was clean from the morning sickness event this morning, but it unfortunately wasn't. She'd done her best at bleaching the toilet bowl and scrubbing the tiles, but poor Pam had forgotten to rinse the bleach, leaving stickier, clean smelling vomit.

I picked up the towel and toothbrush that were placed next to the bed that I woke up in and walked out to Eric.

"Mind if I use your shower?" I asked, stepping into the room. He hadn't taken up my half of the cushion yet, but he'd bought a pillow over to prop his head up on.

"Go ahead, but mind the step, it gets slippery."

Alright. I went back into Eric's room and walked through to get to his ensuite. It was massive. Everything was glistening white. Everything was in perfect order. He had his toothpaste in the shower which was a good thing. He had a neutral body wash and a manly one, which was also good, and he had the best shower head, I had ever been under in my entire life. I usually spent at least 15 minutes, washing scrubbing, massaging or shaving every inch of my skin that needed the attention. But this morning it was a get clean, get out unfortunately. I thought I just continuing to visit Eric's however, just for his amazing shower.

I dried off in a giant white fluffy towel and put my dress from the previous night on. O decided to go panty-less, since I didn't think of bringing another pair, so I put the white lace panties on top of the washing pile that was building up, and decided I'd put the machine on now, and save the man having to do it later on.

I found the laundry pretty easy, and the washing powder was right above the machine. The machine was already preset to the settings, so I put a load of whites on. I heard footsteps come into the laundry so I stood up tall quickly and tuned around to meet Eric's eyes. They looked amused, and his lips were turned up in a smile.

"You didn't have to do that, you know," he laughed. "I may be a man, but I do know how to do my own laundry."

I raised an eyebrow at him and took held the washing powder box out for him. "Is that so?" I asked.

He nodded and took it in his hands. "What's wrong with this?"

I smirked. "It's a top loader powder, you have a front loader machine, you need a different powder, or they'll be too many bubbles for the machine,"

He frowned at the box and walked out with it. I followed him, knowing that the coloured clothes still needed washing and watched him throw the box in the bin. I chuckled at him. He was throwing a temper tantrum over washing. He grabbed his car keys and headed towards the front door. He turned around to look at me.

"You coming?" he asked. I took a step forward before thinking.

"Pam?" I asked.

"Passed out." Was all he said. I slipped on my shoes and grabbed my purse, which were both conveniently placed next to the front door. We walked out to his car, which I hadn't noticed before, was a very nice, shiny red Corvette. Oh golly, thank goodness I didn't throw up in it last night. I don't even remember getting home. He held the door open for me, and a graciously stepped in. He closed it behind me and was in the driver's seat.

"Where are we going?"

"To get "front loader" washing powder."

I laughed out loud, and the sound of my laugh was amazingly cheery considering the amount of champagne I had the night before, and how early I had woken up.

I noticed that Eric and I matched in what we were wearing. I was wearing my spanking new, white strapless cocktail dress. But it didn't have symmetrical cut-outs and low necklines like the rest of the party-goers' last night. He was wearing a white, button-down shirt, and knee-length khaki's. With thongs.

I noticed how tall I felt when we pulled up the grocery store and I stepped out of the car with my stupid heels. But I felt much better when Eric had stepped to my side. He offered my his arm, and I grabbed it quickly, taking advantage of the extra balance he would provide. His arms were huge, I didn't notice them before, as they're in proportion to the rest of him, but you couldn't tell underneath the long-sleeved shirt he was wearing last night, just how defined his muscles were. They were big, but not too scary; I was tempted to run my finger along the contours of them, just to see if they felt as good as they looked. But his skin was soft, I could tell as much from the grip I had on him.

As we entered, he picked up a basket and hung it on his free arm. I had no idea what isles where which, so he led the way to the cleaning products. I could feel eyes on the back of my head watching the tall, handsome and blonde man walk gracefully through a shopping centre with me. When I looked back at the eyes, I was met with the faces of middle-aged women, who had nothing better to do that gaze dreamily at Eric. Oh please. He was too good for all of them. He needed a Heidi Montag, or Paris Hilton on his arms. That's what he deserved. I stuck my nose in the air at that thought before I realized it unsettled me. I didn't like picturing Eric with other women. He deserved better than anyone there was. Him and Pam were raised well, they had good intentions when it came to wanting things, and they used their manners.

Not to mention that Eric was sweet enough to offer not only his sister, but his sister's friend as well, a bed for night. He was lovely enough to take me out to dinner, when it was obvious that as a person who cooked all day, party food didn't interest me. And he was polite enough to stick around through that dinner, even though he was in charge of the party he had abandoned... for me.

Hell… Eric was a saint compared to most men. My most recent ex had none of Eric's qualities. He wasn't sweet; he was nasty to anyone who treated him to a lower standard of which he expected. Intentionally or not. He wasn't lovely; he talked so lowly of people, that you'd think he was the King, not just a computer salesman. And God forgive me if Bill Compton was ever patient, I'd never seen him stand in a queue for more than a minute. But then again.

My most recent ex-boyfriend, Bill wasn't faithful either. And if you can't trust a man enough to keep his penis in his pants, you can't really trust him to do much.


	3. Chapter 3

Thank-you so much for favoring this story :) and the reviews are so nice! I know I make a lot of mistakes, but golly, you are all so patient!

I've just come out of my uni overload of assignments, so hopefully I can update a little more than usual, no promises though :)

**Eric's POV**

Walking through the supermarket with Sookie dangling on my arm reminded me of weddings. People around us stopped and stared at the beautiful blonde on my arm, I'd seen majority of these people before. They were the desperate bachelorette's of Shreveport that hit on anything that moved. This was the first time anyone in this grocer that had seen me with a woman. I was thankful she was wearing a nice dress and some pretty shoes, but not as thankful as I was about how attractive she was. She gave a good impression on the spinsters.

We got to the isle we needed and Sookie pointed out the symbol I needed to look for when buying the washing detergent. She suggested a brand (after promising it wouldn't be too feminine), and I put the box she handled to me in the basket. I led her up and down the aisles, stopping to get my usual buys. Every now and then she'd tut at me or shake her head at my choice in groceries. Even with my usual bleach, she asked me what I usually use it one and I explained. She then replaced my choice with a smaller, "lemon scented" bottle. I shrugged at her to put it in the basket.

When it came to buying vegetables, she guided me through and asked me what I was planning to make. I just wanted a salad variety, and within no time, she had added spinach leaves, tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, carrot, yellow capsicum and a nice salad onion to my groceries. I was afraid of what she'd say when I was about to choose my fruit.

But she instead sat back and watched me select my apples, mandarins and peaches. She laughed when I selected a punnet of every berry available, and she didn't say anything at all when I filled a bag up with cherries. I love cherries. We left the building pretty quickly, after everything was paid for, and Sookie mocked the check-out chick that talked with an odd accent, and blinked a little too much. Surprisingly, she still kept a hold of my arm. I wasn't complaining, her hands were warm and soft, comforting in a way. Not to mention she was the perfect height with her heels on, and I got the best view of her cleavage and flat stomach whenever I looked over onto my left.

How was she single?

She had perfect posture. She was awfully kind and polite. She could cook. She was beautiful. She was fit, not fat at all. Had her own business, so she was intelligent enough to know finance and keep up with the current market. And to top it all off, she agreed to come to a shopping centre in heels and have people look at her incredulously. She didn't seem to mind at all, if anything, she turned her nose up into the air and moved in closer to me. She was perfect as far as I could tell. _Maybe she snored?_

I even doubted the fact that she snored, she'd stayed over at my house every weekend, less than 5 years ago, and she slept silently from what I remembered. I wondered what the problem was. Maybe she just wasn't a relationship person. Or maybe she was secretly married, and her husband was away in the Army. I doubted that. But I couldn't believe that she wasn't happily married or having quadruplets like everyone else I knew that was her age.

But I considered myself generally normal apart from my working hours, and I hadn't been in a relationship since...

Lorena? My final year of Senior school. So that made it 8 years ago, more or less Jesus. Sookie was normal compared to me. At least she still dated, or so I heard. The last "boyfriend" of hers I had heard of was the dweeb, Bill Compton. But he ended up cheating on her, so it ended.

I shook my head at that idea. I couldn't understand why people cheated. If they already had a partner, they should already have any sexual organs desired. But for some people, apparently a loving partner isn't enough. And they have to cheat. The thought of it made me sick, let alone someone cheating on Sookie Stackhouse.

_He must have been crazy._

We finished the shopping fairly quickly afterwards, and we made comfortable small-talk about my buys.

"I might book Pam a doctor's appointment tomorrow if she doesn't get better," I spoke softly. Sookie shot up at this, and eyed me suspiciously. "She's thrown up, and she's slept all day. It's not healthy." I stated.

She turned her suspicious look into a grin quickly. "I'm sure it's just a bug going around, a few of my friends have been kind of up and down lately." She coughed and looked down, playing with her thumbs.

"You're friends seemed fine last night," I acknowledged. She nodded and her grin tightened a little.

"Oh they're perfect now. Everything works out perfectly for them. Same as it will for Pam. She'll be perfect, just like them."

"That doesn't sound perfect to me."

She twitched her nose. "We all have different concepts of perfect."

If I wasn't sure we weren't talking just about Pam, I was now. It was something bigger.

She must have sensed the grimace on my face as I stressed about my younger sister. She placed her hand on top of mine on the gearstick.

"My Gran was a nurse when she was younger, if I learnt anything from her. I'd know that Pam's going to be okay after a while."

With that, she rubbed her thumb over the top of my hand soothingly. And I felt nothing but calm wash over my body. It was incredible. She rubbed her thumb in circles over my fingers before she removed her hand, and placed it back in her lap, continuing to play with her own thumbs.

"What's your idea of perfect, Sookie?"

She smiled again. I loved how much she smiled.

"In what concept?"

I laughed. "I want to know what life would be for you if everything were perfect."

I heard her exhale. "I'd close Hale's. I'd wake up at 10am, every morning to bacon and eggs in bed, made by a husband who doesn't snore. He'd kiss me when he left for work in the morning, and I'd be a stay-at-home mum of two kids. I'd make dinner for him every night, and kiss him when he got home at night. I'd have a white picket fence at the front of my house, and a river running at the back, that I could swim in, in summer time."

I glanced over at her. She had her eyes closed. Her life did sound enticing.

"What would be you're perfect life, Eric?" she asked, her eyes remaining closed.

I could feel my face frown at the question. I liked sex, but I didn't like it with different people, so I knew that meant I wanted a relationship. I had the house I wanted. A large front-yard and small backyard for entertaining. I had it made generic everywhere except my own bedroom and the kitchen, my bedroom was large room with the world's best ensuite attached. The kitchen was modern, with green appliances and green walls. I had it so easily set up, but everything was so intriquite and in sync. Everything flowed together in the kitchen. Including the recipes and meals.

I wanted a dog. I missed having animal company around my house, and I'd give up The Chase in a second. I loved owning it; I just hated the attention it bought. I wanted a bar, not a nightclub, and bars shouldn't be open from lunch until 2 in the morning. I didn't want to work 14 hours.

"I want a relationship. I want a daytime job that doesn't involve watching drunk people dance for over half of my day. I want a dog."

I felt her eyes on my face. I looked at her again to see her staring at me with inquisitive eyes.

"That doesn't sound perfect. Not without an explanation."

So I told her everything. I told her how I was feeling old and didn't enjoy the sex with countless different women. I told her how I hated owning a 'nightclub', yet loved my staff, the pay, and the thrill of being in charge of something. I told her how if I couldn't find someone to spend my nights with, I was buying the fluffiest dog I could find, and I told her how I loved my house.

"Oh I love your house too," she smirked. "You're shower is amazing, where's you're shower head from? I want one."

I roared with laughter. I didn't think much of it when she used my shower this morning. I guess I hadn't noticed that she smelt like my coconut body wash before now. She smelt like summer.

"It's from Sweden. I'll get you one for your Birthday."

She grinned. "Which is today."

I grinned back at her. "Happy 24th Birthday, Sookie Stackhouse."

We reached the house in record time. As we both shared the weight of the groceries, she yet again used my arm to balance on, and slipped her shoes off as we walked in the door. Pam was sitting in the kitchen, a cup of tea in her hands.

I think I figured out what was wrong with her somewhere in between unpacking the large jar of coffee I'd just bought, and seeing my caffeine addict of a sister drinking tea for the first time in her life. But within 2 minutes of walking through the door, I'd figured out that Pam was pregnant, and I was giving her the biggest bear-hug of her life while kissing her forehead.

"I'm gonna be an uncle!" I sung. The two girls in the kitchen laughed and giggled at my reaction.

"How'd you figure it out, you big oaf?" Pam questioned, her eyes darting to Sookie for a fraction of a second.

I remembered the conversation we'd had in the car. Perfection. Sookie's Utopia had consisted of having a child. Just before we'd admitted our dream lives, she'd said Pam's was going to be perfect. I'd walked into my sister, who usually lived off of around 6 cups of coffee a day (no joke), drinking tea. She'd thrown up. She was tired. She hadn't drank.

"Little hints. But the caffeine-less beverage in your hands gave it away." I winked at her and she sighed as she wrinkled her nose at the tea.

Sookie had known before me. I didn't care that she did. She was a girl, and babies were a girly thing to talk about. But I did feel sorry for Sookie.

She must have been the first person to know about Pam's future fetus, and of course Sookie wanted one too. Sookie was the first person to know about Pam getting married, and of course, Sookie wanted to get married as well. Not only did Sookie have to watch her best friend get married before her, she had to be Maid of Honor at my sister's wedding. Ouch. Although I was sure that Sookie already had the dream house she wanted as well. From what I remember, her family home had always had a white picket fence around it.

_But her grandmother had died in that home._

It sucked to be Sookie at the moment. While we unpacked the food, and shoved all the cleaning products into the laundry. Sookie put on another load of washing, and put the clean bunch in the dryer. I was watching her intently, bending over to put more clothes in the little opening I had for my front-loading machines.

Pam was in the kitchen sipping her tea with disgust. So it was safe to say what I was feeing.

"I'm sorry, Sookie." I spoke.

She looked up at me with sad eyes. "What are you sorry about, Eric?"

I handed her the new washing powder. "How Pam's rubbing your concept of perfect in your nose." I whispered.

Her eyes grew wide at what I said, and she opened her mouth as if she was to say something, but no noise came out. Instead she nodded.

"You're the first person to realize." Her mouth turned up at the sides. _Trying to smile again._ But her eyes remained the same. "I love your sister, but it sucks how everything's worked out perfectly for her and everyone else. Thanks for seeing that." I smiled at her.

"You can marry me and have my babies?" I offered before I could think it through. I hoped it sounded like I was joking.

I saw her look me up and down for a brief second. She smirked at me.

"Marriage is a maybe. Babies are a definite no."

I laughed. Thank god she'd taken the offer as a joke, even though if I was to get married and have kids, Sookie would be the first pick of women. "Why don't you want my babies, Stackhouse?" I asked. "Blonde hair, blue eyed children are adorable."

She winked at me. "Your heads too big."

"I don't have a big head."

She glanced at me again. "Yep. You do."

I gasped dramatically. "There is nothing wrong with having a big head."

She giggled, her smile looked genuine now. "Nothing wrong with you having one, no. But if our future baby was to inherit you're sized head, I'd be forced to have a caesarian." She looked at my head again, gulping at the thought. "I don't think I could squeeze a head your size out of me."

I turned away from her so I could smile goofily at the thought of her with a giant headed baby inside of her belly. She slapped my shoulder playfully, guessing where my train of thought was. She laughed out loud.

"At least I wouldn't complain about a gigantic baby while it's inside of me. Stan's huge! I hope his kid won't split you're sister open when it decides to come out!"

I roared with laughter and we heard Pam shout something unintelligible at us from the other room. But neither Sookie nor I understood, so we both just shrugged at each other, and laughed even harder at the gesture.

Come afternoon, I had dropped Sookie off at her house, and Pam decided she wanted to stay with me for the next week of her stay, so we swapped the company of Sookie for a rather large suitcase filled with my sister's clothes and other personal belongings.

Pam and I didn't talk at all on the way home. She turned on the radio, and had her head learning on the window. It was a long hour.

As I grabbed her suitcase from the empty backseat, Pam lightened up a little. Rambling on about the wedding and how she was glad her brother and best friend were attractive, she didn't want ugly people in her photo's. She then started rambling on about the baby.

"So, would you agree to be a Godparent to the baby?"

I looked at her and nodded.

"Sookie said yes at prom, so I know we're not going to have any problems with her."

I rolled my eyes at her. "Godparents are supposed to be couples, Pam."

She smirked at me. "You and Sook aren't together yet, no. But Stan and I aren't dead yet either."

With that she turned on her heel and walked away. I felt sorry for poor Sookie. I hadn't heard Pamela say happy birthday to her today, and she had been left in Bon Temps the day of her 24th birthday.

I was glad I had her cell number from a few years ago, I hoped she hadn't changed numbers as I decided to call her.

The number rang, so I held on, although it took around a minute for her to answer.

"Sookie Stackhouse," puffed the out of breathe voice of my Sookie.

"Eric Northman," I replied in the same tone.

She hushed me and asked me what I wanted.

"Just wanted to make sure you weren't all too lonely at you're place,"

She sighed, "Nope, gardening away. Plus I'm going to put dinner on soon. I'm fine thanks."

"You sound lonely." I observed.

There was a pause on the other side of the line. I was taking that as a yes, so I kept on talking.

"Would you like to come over for dinner, Eric? I know it's a long drive, but I don't Fancy eating alone tonight."

I smirked into the phone at her voice. "Would you like to come over to my house again, Sookie? I just did the shopping after all."

Another pause. "I'll supply the wine as well?" I suggested.

I heard her giggle on the other end as I said this. "Not needed, I can't drive home if I drink too much wine."

"Stay then. Pam can't drink with me, and I don't want to drink alone."

I could hear her moving around the house. "I'll start packing for the night, be over in an hour or so." And the phone clicked. I shook my head as I flipped my phone shut.

I went and checked on Pam who was on the edge of sleep as she watched some odd sitcom on TV. I wondered how far along in her pregnancy she was, she was long enough in that she slept a heap. But not far enough in, that you could visibly see the signs. From what I remembered in Sex Ed class, you could usually start seeing the baby belly at around 3-4 months. So I was guessing that Pam was around 2-3.

It was 4pm, and I wanted some pasta dish for dinner, following the Chinese I had last night. So I stuffed some cannelloni shells, and placed them in the oven at a low temperature to cook. They usually took an hour to cook at their usual temperature, so I was guessing an hour and a half at the lower heat.

About half an hour after they were in the oven, Sookie arrived, and I relocated from the kitchen into the lounge, with Pam, and listened to the two of them bicker over the baby.

"But Sookie, I want you to be more than an aunty to the baby. You're not technically blood, but I want you to be important in his or hers life."

After that point, Sookie warmed up at the idea of being a Godmother. Even though she was a Christian, she had no idea what it meant. I tried explaining how being a legal guardian of the child after the parents were deceased. But she grimaced.

Pam interrupted. "If I died while giving birth, you'd be the kids mum. If Stan died two days later, Eric would be the dad."

I gulped at the thought of my sister dying. Especially at the hands of some kid who didn't even exist yet. But Sookie agreed, and paperwork would be organized for us to sign in a few weeks. Although there wouldn't be a name for us to sign under, Pam wanted the godparent's names signed before Stan's sister could grab the position apparently.

She dozed off again, and I noticed that Sookie and I had halved the favored cushion on the couch.

It was much better than play fighting about it, I had to admit. But it felt weird not teasing her. We had a love-hate relationship while Pam was involved, but when she left, Sookie left my life as well. Not that Sookie and I were close friends, but she was always a part of the picture. My parents loved her as if she was their own child, and Pam loved her as much as she loved me.

She also looked like a Northman, as she had the blonde hair and blue eyes. She didn't have the same face shape, and her features were softer than our own defined characteristics. But she and Pam could have gotten away with being cousins, at the least.

She also didn't care about our families money. She seemed more eager to go out to Wendy's for dinner than she did a French cuisine, and she understood why my parents sent their children to public school's instead of the pricey boarding school that my father went too.

My parents owned a publishing business in Washington that earned millions each year, yet they never seemed to spend a penny more than necessary. When it came to the funding of The Chase, I turned to my sister before I turned to my parent's. My sister then turned to Sookie.

And although Sookie was well aware of my family's financial situation, she happily gave Pam the loan she needed to get started on the business.

The buzzer went off on the oven, and I served dinner and we ate in a comfortable silence. Sookie moaning over each bite of the spinach and ricotta cannelloni, while casually sipping on wine while she ate.

Pam was bouncing in her seat, obviously enjoying the food, but you could tell she was disappointed that I didn't offer her a glass of wine.

She went to bed shortly after dinner, claiming that having a person grow inside of her was tiring. Leaving Sookie and I to finish off a few more bottles of wine in between us, and conjure up the worst possible baby names.

"Sookie," she giggled.

I snorted into my drink. "I still think Gertrude," I shook my head. We both laughed and she giggled constantly.

"I have no idea what my parents were thinking when they gave me the name, Sookie. I mean, it sounds horrible." She rolled her eyes. "I wish I could ask them what they were thinking of. Whether my mum was craving cookies, and my dad soup, I'll never know."

I reached out and took her hand, giving it a tight squeeze. "I love Sookie, it's unique, just like you."

She squeezed my hand in return, and looked up into my eyes.

"More wine?"

"Yes please," I agreed.

I don't remember what happened after that. But the next morning, I woke up next to Sookie Stackhouse.


	4. Chapter 4

**Sookie POV**

Eugh. My head was spinning when I woke up the next morning as I rolled over to check the time, it read 4am on the digital clock next to me.

I rolled back over and looked at the empty room around me. The blackness of it made me feel so lonely. Maybe it was because it wasn't my house, maybe it was because I had Pam next to me the previous night, or maybe I was still a little drunk. Whatever the reason, I had the urge to go snuggle up next to my best friend or her brother.

So sure enough, I stumbled out of my room and walked straight into the room across from me. I jumped in the bed not knowing whether it was my lovely pregnant Pam, or her gorgeous, big-headed brother, but it was nice to know I wasn't alone so I didn't care.

After about 2 minutes of lying on my side under the covers, the giant heavy arm that constricted around me told me that it was Eric, as did the hard member the squashed against my body as he closed the space between us. He was still asleep judging by the soft snoring sound rumbling from his chest, so I didn't think anything of the situation that was happening underneath the blankets.

I drifted off to sleep shortly after he wrapped his body around me, thanking the Gods he wore pants to bed.

When I woke up again, I looked over to his bedside table and it was 11. I wriggled out of Eric's death grip he had on me, and decided to bounce up and down on the bed to try and wake him up a little. He fluttered his eyes open groggily, but I'm guessing that he woke up pretty quickly as he tackled me down onto the floor.

I'm sure it would have been a romantic moment if Eric and I were in love, as he was lying on top of me, his blue eyes staring into mine. But instead, he gave me a sly smirk, and pecked the tip of my nose. Repeating the action I did to him the previous night on our picnic.

He stood up and held his hand out to me as a peace offering and I happily obliged.

"You didn't sleep with me, did you Miss. Stackhouse?" he asked, raising his eyebrow with a sneaky look.

She winked at him, all knowing that he would figure it out with her side of the bed being rumpled. _Her _side.

Avoiding the question she offered coffee. He nodded his head vigorously, and jumped back into bed.

"Is Pam up yet?"

Sookie shrugged. "I'll let you know when I know," and she walked out of the room, tying her hair up in a messy bun as she walked. Sookie guessed that Pam would be in the kitchen, sitting at the bench, reading the newspaper and drinking tea.

Sure enough, as she entered the room, her best friend was scrunching her nose up at the tea, wanting the forbidden coffee.

"Ever think of getting de-caf coffee? Might not wake you up, but add enough sugar, you'll never know the difference?"

The ever so lovely Pam stuck her tongue out at me for suggesting this, but took another sip of her tea, shuddering at the taste.

"Is my brother a good lay?" was all she retaliated.

I shrugged. "Wouldn't know Pam, "I retorted as I went to put the coffee on. "Would you like a nice big mug of caffeine this morning?"

I heard Eric cough from his bedroom, obviously eavesdropping, and Pam dropped her head. Her eyes were brimming with tears, so I sat down next to her and held her hand. She looked up to me with her bright blue eyes as they started leaking.

"I don't know how you put up with my rudeness, I don't know how anyone does" she cried. I rubbed her hand soothingly. She sobbed out loud as more tears flowed, and saw Eric poke his head around the corner with an extremely worried and confused look on his face. I mouthed 'pregnancy hormones' to him and his eyes widened as his head quickly disappeared around the corner again. Pam grabbed my whole body in an embrace as her sobs slowed. She let me go after she calmed down, and I decided that she could do with a cup of coffee this morning, she looked like she needed it.

After I poured the 3 mugs full, Eric came out looking rather smug at avoiding his emotional sister. I rolled my eyes at him as he hummed a tune to himself.

The rest of the morning, Pam had random emotional outbursts, Eric and I shared the job of calming her, until she announce d she had booked the 6pm flight to Texas since she missed Stan.

"Don't take it the wrong way Sook, I love you. And you too, Eric," she acknowledged. "It's just I miss him like crazy, and I don't cry when he's around. He makes me a different kind of happy."

We both waved at her as she got on her plane at Shreveport. She was happier after she booked her flight, and she stayed awake for the rest of the day. It might have had something to do with the coffee she had, but Eric was betting it was because of Stan.

"Are you working tomorrow, Miss Stackhouse?" Eric asked, batting his eyelashes towards me.

I shook my head. "I'm only doing private orders from now up until Christmas, so I have another 3 weeks of not going into the building."

"How many private orders do you have?"

I grimaced. "42, plus you're snowman cake, so 43."

I saw him shake his head lightly in amazement. Not even I thought that Hale's business would be as busy as it was. I charged a lot for my orders as well. For my simple Christmas cake, it cost people $40. And only two people wanted my simple cakes this year. Everyone else wanted extravagant cakes.

Bill Compton's uncle, bless his heart, had ordered a cake that looked like the nativity scene of the birth of Jesus. He offered me $750 for it. He said as long as it had an edible Virgin Mary, he would be happy.

I had no idea where Bill Compton got his nastiness from. His family was awfully kind, helping out the community and donating to charity every week. They still came to me for their bread, and paid me for making them a Thanksgiving turkey. In fact, they still invited me to their thanksgiving dinners, giving me a +1 option on the invitation as well. I went to their home the previous year, since Bill never attends, and it was lovely.

Eric let out a long whistle next to me, as we got in the car, to return back to his house.

"Would you like to stay tonight again, Sookie?"

I looked over at him, his blue eyes were looking at me intently.

"Either you really enjoy my company Eric, or you're a very lonely man."

He blinked in response to my words. I regretted them immediately, they were harsh. I would love to stay with him as a matter of fact. Sleeping next to him was comforting, waking up was even better.

"I'm sorry, that sounded rude."

He shrugged, but looked hurt. "I'm lonely, yes. But you're company is enjoyable as well."

So it was set. We got back to his house, and ate dinner. We showered, brushed our teeth and put our pajamas on. I walked out of the bathroom to find him waiting with a mug of hot chocolate for me.

I smiled at him thankfully and we drank in comfort. He rested his hand on my upper thigh, which I was surprised about. But I didn't mind.

I'd known Eric for more than 5 years, and he was pretty much perfect.

He had a history with women yes, but I knew he was lonely at the moment. And I didn't think it was possible for him to hurt a woman. Even when he did have steady girlfriends, he was nothing but nice to them. He bought them flowers, and opened doors to them. It was the girls that cheated, and used him for his niceness. And after his last girlfriend, Sophie-Anne, I think he gave up on relationships.

I looked at his beautiful face again, studying the contours of his jaw, and the perfect shape of his nose. I had to laugh at the moustache of froth that surrounded his mouth though.

"You, you have a little something around there," I pointed out, in between my giggles.

His eyes lit up. "What, Where?" he asked.

I laughed even harder. He was attempting to be innocent by pretending to not know what I was talking about.

I reached out to wipe the froth of with my finger when he grabbed my hand in motion and leaned in to kiss me.

I think my heart stopped. I automatically closed my eyes as the warmth of his mouth found mine, and his lips parted forcing mine apart with them. His tongue found mine, and it slowly lapped mine gently, wanting to play with mine.

He picked me up and placed me on his lap, I opened my eyes as his hands gripped my waist desperately, and all I saw was his yes, piercing into mine with passion and lust.

His fingers traced up and down my lower back, while another set brushed the area in between my throat and cleavage. My own hands ran though his long hair, keeping my body as close to his as possible, while still looking into his bright blue eyes.

The rhythm of tongues dancing became more paced, yet his hands that were searching my body became more frantic, and his caress became a little rougher than it was a few moments ago.

A soft moan came out of my mouth as he trailed light kisses down my throat and he looked at me longingly.

"Bedroom?" I whispered, wanting more of his touch. He shook his head.

"Not tonight."

I must have looked pissed. He stopped kissing me, but his fingers tucked a lock of loose hair behind my ear. He smiled at me gently.

"This shouldn't be rushed Miss. Stackhouse. Not with you." He picked up my hand that had fell into my lap with disappointment when he had rejected my bedroom suggestion. He kissed it gently.

I'd known I was attracted to Eric since I'd met Pam. If I hadn't known he was her brother, I probably would have jumped his bones the minute I'd met him. I'd always liked him as a person as well. He was popular in school, but not the cocky type of popular. I guess I could have dated him. He was my Prom date, while my brother escorted Pam, it was a private joke as Jason and Pam would have been perfect for each other. I'm pretty sure they were secretly dating for a while, but she didn't want anyone to know, as Eric and Jason hated each other.

I'd never acted out on my attraction to Eric. Maybe it was because I respected Pam's friendship too much to ruin it by dating her brother. Maybe it was because I wasn't up to par with the other girls he had gone out with. Sophie Anne was a FHM model now. Fake boobs and all.

But if I'd have known my body reacted like this to Eric, I would have acted out sooner. It was great. His touch left goose bumps wherever it went and his mouth on mine made my lady bits almost melt with anticipation.

I knew he enjoyed it too, I was sitting on his lap after all, so I could _feel _his excitement. But he rejected me. I pouted at the thought of rejection.

His hands tilted my chin up. "Don't feel bad, I'd just like you to feel more comfortable with me, and not regret a thing."

Such a gentleman. He was looking at the crucifix that was around my neck as well, that reminded me that I was a Christian. I was a horrible Christian at that, since I'd slept with John Quinn in my senior year and Bill. But I figured God owed me some slack since he'd allowed all of my family to die. I know it made him a pretty bad God, and I was a lousy Christian, but I still believe in the Lord, and I still go to Church.

I nodded, and he carried me to the bedroom bridal style, setting me down on my side of the bed. He crawled over me to get to his side and settled under the blankets.

"You don't mind me cuddling you, do you?"

I shook my head, reminiscing on the previous nights cuddling that took away the feeling of loneliness. Almost instantaneously, his arms were wrapped around me, and one of his giant legs was lain over me. I wriggled to test his grip, and I was pleased to see that I could barely move.

I rubbed my head against his chest affectionately, and I felt him kiss my hair. Wow. I felt amazingly at home, and I got a weird déjà vu feeing, but I welcomed it.

I felt his erection against my side, and I tried to subtly rub myself against it.

He chuckled, "Nice try Stackhouse" but pressed it closer to me anyways. I sighed with relief that he was comfortable with that, but didn't try to force myself onto him. "Goodnight, Lover." He whispered.

I smiled. "Lover? Is that what I am."

He moaned. "Only if you want to be."

I smiled into him. "I'll be anything you want me to be, as long as I am something."

He laughed out loud this time. "You've always been something, Silly Sookie. Just now you be mine, and not Pam's."

I left it at that, not wanting an explanation on how I was "Pam's". So I closed my eyes, and was soothed by the loud thuds of his heartbeat.

**Eric's POV**

I woke up the small Sookie Stackhouse in my arms, it was amazing. I inhaled her scent and let out a long sigh. Her smell was amazing, it was delicious. I was finally seeing her as a woman, and not a girl and I wanted to relish that. I hoped she saw me as a man now, and not the boy I was when she first met me.

But judging by her trying to sleep with me last night, I'm sure she knew just how manly I was. I shuddered at the thought of having sex with Sookie Stackhouse. The way I kissed her last night was intense.

Out of all the women I had locked lips with in my past, not one of them had lit a spark that was as bright as it was with Sookie. Not any of them had lit a spark at all I don't think.

I wanted her. I wanted her right now, on this bed, with the morning light shining in on us through the window. But I also wanted make sure she wanted me too. Not just physically, but emotionally.

I'd offered her marriage and babies yesterday. I thought it was just a joke at first, but seeing her tend to my weeping sister yesterday showed me how much she deserved marriage and children. She was a loving person, and she deserved the world. But no one had given it to her yet, it was actually unfair,

And Pam had looked at her 2 nights ago, when she said that I could make a girl happy. Had she meant Sookie specifically? Or was she just acknowledging to me that Sookie was unhappy?

Whatever the reason, I tightened my hold on the beautiful blonde next to me, not wanting her to be unhappy. Anyone who could be maternal towards my bitch of a sister didn't deserve to be sad for a second. I wanted to make her happy.

I wanted to make her smile. I wanted to give her the things in life that she deserved. Even the cushion on my couch that she liked.

She stirred in her sleep, and mumbled something. I leaned my head in closer to her, trying to hear what she was mumbling.

"I said I need to breathe sooner or later, Eric," she said as she rolled over to face me, her heavenly face just an inch away from mine. I released my hold on her and she inhaled deeply.

"Thank you," she breathed. But she picked up my arm, and wrapped it around her again. I didn't put any pressure on her as I was tempted to though. Instead I stretched my face forward the extra inch and kissed her lips gently. She moaned slightly with the touch.

I heard her moan last night, it was such an exotic sound that came from her lips, I loved hearing it.

"Morning sex?" she asked. Her eyes almost pleading.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm supposed to the one pressuring you. Not the other way round Sookie."

She looked at me confused. And her eyes started to moisten up.

"Hey!" I exclaimed. "That's not a bad thing. I was just saying it's supposed to be the other way around."

She pushed her lips out. "I want you."

I sighed. After my epiphany seconds before, I promised myself that I'd give her anything she wanted. So her choice in words were just a lucky coincidence on her behalf.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure?"

She frowned seductively. "Don't you want me, Eric?"

That was all it took. I rolled myself on top of her and pushed my length against her. Her legs wrapped around me as a response and she kissed me violently.

What a vixen.

"You tell me if you think I want you or not, Sookie," I grunted as her fingers pushed my pajama pants down, and her small hand wrapped around my member.

"It feels like you want me."

I didn't know if I was thinking with my head upstairs as I pushed her pajama shorts and panties down, revealing smooth skin that almost made me finish at the feel of the smooth surface. But I know my downstairs head wanted nothing more than to push inside of her, and feel her walls close around me as she called my name.

But that's what it did. After fussing about going to hurt, and asking her if she was sure. She took her singlet off, and pushed her body down so the tip of me was pushed into the entrance of her hot centre. But I slid inside of her, and all I could think about for the following twenty minutes was her, and the beautiful sounds of pleasure she made.

"Look at me baby," I whispered as I felt her beginning to tighten around me. I was almost there as well, so I knew we'd finish together. Her eyes opened as she looked into my eyes as she finished. She cried out and bit her bottom lip as she came, and I couldn't picture a better moment of my life. I released myself into her, and her walls milked me.

We laid on the bed naked for the rest of the morning, I traced the lines of her body with my eyes, and then my fingers, before she hopped on top of me, and decided she wanted me again. I didn't deny her, we fit together nicely in bed, and I was just as wanting as her as we met each other each thrust.

We talked about little things together the rest of the day. Small things like favorite memories, favorite foods, things we spent most of our money on. I paid attention as she said she admitted renovating her kitchen turned out to be more than expected. She laughed as I admitted my shower was the biggest splurge of the year.

"Good investment." She said as she winked, and led me into my bathroom and again, had her way me.

Three weeks had passed of dating Sookie Stackhouse. And I have to admit, the relationship was perfect. She was the envy of all the women we walked by when we went food shopping, and I spent most of my time with her. In Bon Temps at her home when she had a lot of baking to do, or at Shreveport at my house. Lately it had been at my house a lot, since I was back at work, and hated driving back to Bon Temps when I finished at 2am. She was understanding, and didn't mind staying at my house. She even came down to the bar to keep me company some nights.

She had started making the decorations of all her Christmas cakes, and I saw the design of one cake that stood out. She said it was old Mr. Compton's, and the amount that he was giving her for this cake was extreme.

It wasn't enough for the amount of work she had to put into it, but as I sat with her while she made all the small decorative touches, you could see that she enjoyed her job. So she didn't mind the price.

I'd asked her about Hale's, and how we'd work out when she had to open the shop again. She didn't seem to happy at the idea about opening the shop back up. But she figured out that her body clock had adapted to my schedule lately, and she was used to staying up late and sleeping in. So after Christmas, she could bake her goods the night before opening, and stay with me until she had to open the shop.

I liked that idea a lot better than the concept of her waking up at 3 to go to work. That meant we were awake opposite sides of the day.

I'd called into the bar, and made arrangements to start work at lunch and finish at around 9. So we could be working around the same hours as well. I hadn't told her yet, but I figured it would be a nice surprise when she discovered my roster.

Pam was coming home for Christmas, and I could tell that Sookie was nervous about her opinion on the two of us together. I knew she wouldn't care, as long as Sookie still played Barbie whenever she needed someone to model a new outfit or test a new make-up theory.

Sookie had thought that she would be lost without Pam's friendship, since Pam was who she relied on for family during college. But she had no idea how much my sister needed her. After Pam met Sookie, Pam was so much more confident in her actions, and never doubted anything that Sookie said.

I'm pretty sure that Sookie Stackhouse was the reason that my sister turned lesbian in the first place, but Sookie was always too straight forward to even consider the idea of seeing a girl. Pam always talked about her. It was always "Sookie this, Sookie that," at home, and it got under my skin. Until I met her I had no idea what the fuss was about her. Neither did my parents for that matter, they were tired of Pam coming home from school and discussing this 'Sookie" person rather than schoolwork. But once she was introduced to the Northman's, we all understood.

Not only was she a beautiful blonde hair, blue eyed girl who looked remarkably like one of us, she was a typical Southern girl who charmed her way into our lives with her manners and accent. My parents accepted her the first time they met. I think she set the table for tea, and washed the dishes or something like that. It gained her immediate respect, a few weeks later her Gran passed away, making her a part of the family automatically.

Sure enough, when Pam came over for Christmas, she was ecstatic about our relationship, and she insisted we call my parents to let them know right away.

Sookie gave her a dark look so she shut up pretty quickly.

"Aw relax, they just thought you'd be good together the first time they met you Sook. They'd be happy."

Sookie blushed deeply at this and I guffawed.

"You shut your mouth Eric Northman. You're catching flies." Sookie playfully slapped me on the arm and laughed at my facial expression. "They told me to marry you when I was 18. Since they want pretty grandbabies. They were joking, but they thought we were a good combo since you're loud and I'm quiet."

I looked at her stunned and wrapped my arms around her in a hug."You're not so quiet from what I know of you,"

Her blush deepened even more. Pam snorted from her spot in the room, and ushered Sookie into another room to try on her bridesmaid dress.

They headed to my bedroom, and a few minutes after they locked themselves into there, I heard Pam squeal with delight. Obviously the dress looked good. I was tempted to go into the room. I stood outside the room to wait for my two favourite girls. Thanking that my girlfriend and sister were friends before I had to introduce each other. They would have been friends no matter what, but I was sure their relationship would have been different if I knew Sookie before Pam.

_Pam loved her before you. _I heard Sookie's laugh from the room again and the door opened, revealing my gorgeous girlfriend in her matching yellow lace underwear.

I loved it when she wore these ones, they set off the her blue eyes, and showed how tan she was. She ran her hand up my chest as she quickly closed the distance between us. I resisted the urge to lick my lips at how good she looked.

I lifted her up, and she wrapper her legs around my waist. "You look amazing right now" I whispered into her ear.

She looked at me intently. "Why thank you Mr. Northman. You look pretty good in your underwear as well if I don't say so myself."

I chuckled. "How do I look naked, Miss Stackhouse?" I asked, raising my eyebrows suggestively. She looked away from me.

"Perfect." Was all she said, as she looked away embarrassed. I grabbed her chin with my hand and turned it towards me, so I could look into her eyes.

"I told you not to be ashamed of us. We're great together. With clothes or without."


	5. Chapter 5

**SPOV**

My Christmas orders were tiring this year. Especially old Mr. Compton's. The cake looked great in the end, the nativity scene he wanted turned out to be beautiful, I was really proud of the detail I put in to everything, especially the edible Baby Jesus and Virgin Mary.

Even Eric helped out on some days. He'd mix the colours into my icing, and while I was prepping the decorations, he would help out with the bases. It was really sweet for him to help, since he didn't have to, but it made me appreciate his company a whole lot more.

In return, I helped him organize the latest party someone wanted. They'd paid Eric ten thousand dollars to hire out the bar for a night. My jaw dropped at this cost, and I'm sure his did too at one night considering it was 500% more than what he usually wanted. He'd been suspicious of why they wanted The Chase for the evening, but of course he agreed for ten thousand.

So both Eric and I were set as far as our savings accounts were concerned. I had enough money to last me a few years, and I knew Eric's account was at least ten times the size of mine. So we decided to collaborate on Pam and Stan's wedding.

Swarovski crystal champagne flutes, but tine crystals filling the inside of the glass. I marveled at the price of them, but Eric and I both knew that they would be put to good use, and appreciated after the baby was born, and Pam could once again bask in her love for the bubbling alcoholic drink.

I had just got my website up as well, and within a week, I got 400 emails, enquiring about certain designs and prices. Eric's eyes had opened wide as he saw how popular my baking was. If my online numbers were stable over the next six months, I was going to sell Hale's. As much as I loved my shop, it was hard to run by myself, and my house wasn't going to fix and clean itself.

Eric had repainted my white fence just a few days ago, and I had cried in his arms about how thankful I was. He did little things like that a lot though.

Apparently he had a cleaner for his own home, and he only had the one large party at work to plan as of late, so he had more time than usual. When he wasn't spending his own time sleeping or helping me with the Christmas cakes, he was doing manual labour around my house for me.

For Christmas I'd gotten him a 5 foot tall Bob the Builder plush toy as a gag gift. I felt silly buying it, but I knew it'd be a nice way of saying thank you, more so than what I had already said any who. His real present had been more difficult to pick, He already had everything in life that I thought he needed, so I had to look at the things he had, and I had to find something that needed improving.

I succeeded.

I got him a new coffee machine. Once of the ones with the timers, and the automatic bean blenders. All you had to do was press a button and everything was done. I also got him barf bags for his car.

I knew how much he loved his Corvette, and I'd feel so guilty if I ever puked in it. So that present may have been for me.

But I knew I'd lucked out with the last present. The Dark Tower sequence, by Stephen King was just sitting alone on a shelf one day while I was looking for jewellery at an antique store. I'd glanced up and recognized the titles. They had been sat in Eric's room while he was a freshman in college. And Eric had read them at least 20 times over. Each.

But these books were hardcopies, and signed by Stephen King himself. I don't think I have to say that I didn't think twice before buying the books and hiding them in my wardrobe.

So when Christmas Eve rolled in and I was just finishing off my last cake of the night (needless to say it was the snowman that Eric had ordered before my birthday), relief washed through my body and I was finally able to relax. I didn't have to worry about another piece of cake until Pam's wedding next week. But she only wanted a simple cake as it was only going to be a small wedding.

Eric was curled up on my sofa next to me when it turned midnight. He looked up at me excitedly I nodded to say he could open his presents.

He rushed over to the biggest (the giant Bob the Builder plush) and unwrapped it quickly. The second he saw what it was, he rolled his eyes at me dramatically and moved onto the second biggest.

The flashy red Nespresso machine. He blew me a kiss from across the room and set his heart on reading the box for about 30 seconds before moving onto the barf-bags. I still had the books in my cupboard, since I didn't want them to be put with the others. The other presents were bought from the image of the Eric I knew today, where as the books were a little more sentimental, and were bought on the memory of what I had of Eric before we were together.

He roared with laughter at the barf-bags.

"Sookie, if I didn't know you any better, these are more a present for you." I giggled and shrugged my shoulders in an innocent gesture.

"To save me the guilt of spewing in your car, maybe so." He ran up to me on the couch and placed a big sloppy kiss on my lips.

"Thank you for the coffee machine and the toy," he whispered in my ear. "you can thank yourself for the barf bags later."

He winked at me and went back over to the tree, grabbing a handful of boxes and bringing them over to the couch for me.

The Northman family loved Christmas. I'd loved it as a kid, but now I had no family to spend it with, it lost its meaning to me, and I didn't like the holiday. Eric's cheer had put me in a good mood though, he had been singing Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer for the last 4 days, and even left a glass of milk out with some cookies for Santa.

I unwrapped the first gift he gave me and laughed. Bed socks. Bright blue and hideous yellow.

"Because I refuse to wear socks to bed, you buy me bed socks?" I asked. He winked at me and handed me the second box. This one was bigger, and had gold wrapping paper.

I gently unwrapped this one, not wanting to ruin the paper. I could feel Eric's frustration rolling off him, his impatience building with the speed of my unwrapping.

Before I knew it, his humongous hands had replaced mine in the process and he had a guilty grin on his face.

"Couldn't help yourself?"

He chuckled. I looked down at the package in front of me. Hazelnut roasted coffee beans. My favourite. I made googly eyes at him and I was embarrassed at the feminine sound that came out of my mouth.

The last box didn't have paper surrounding it. The lid was secured on by a ribbon and it was light.

I untied the ribbon in a dramatic way and took the lid off. Inside was a blue dog collar. I didn't get it at first. I picked it up and looked at the size of the miniature collar in my hands.

I tilted my head at Eric. He looked like he was about to explode with excitement.

"You got me a collar and I haven't had a dog in 15 years?" I laughed. "Funny, Eric."

He looked at me confused and shook his head. He stood up and walked out of the room leaving me alone. Oh.

A minute later he walked in with a puppy in his hands. I squealed and ran over to the two of them. Hugging my boyfriend and scratching the puppy on its head at the same time awkwardly.

"I'm guessing it's a boy from the blue collar, but what type of dog is he Eric?" I asked, trying not to jump up and down in excitement.

He handed me the puppy and with a satisfied look on his face, "He's a beagle, Sook." And placed a peck on the top of my head.

I lifted the beagle up so it was at eye level with me, and his tail started wagging instantaneously.

"Hey buddy, you know who you're mummy is don't you!" the tail wagged more. I could see Eric laughing silently behind the dog, but I was concentrating on the miniature dog in my hands. "What are we gonna call you buddy?"

The dog yapped at my words and I smiled. "Buddy. I think you look like a Buddy." Eric smiled at me.

I placed a kiss on my new puppies nose, and jumped up into Eric's arms.

"Best boyfriend ever?" he asked. I nodded enthusiastically and pressed my lips into his. We made our way to the bedroom, my still in his arms and when we got there, I had the best Christmas sex I'd ever had. It was the only Christmas sex I'd ever had, but boy was it great.

"Can't believe you got me a dog for Christmas." I sighed, as we sprawled out in Eric's bed, enjoying the aftermath of the previous pleasure.

"Can't believe you got me barf bags" he laughed. He propped himself up his elbow to talk to me better. "You want to know something really weird?" he asked.

I nodded. Of course I did if he was going to bring it up.

"I was going to name him before I gave him to you, but I decided I'd wait to see if you wanted to since he's yours." I nodded for him to continue. "But anyways, I got him micro chipped and vaccinated yesterday and had to sign him under a name…"

"You signed him under Buddy?" I guessed, smiling at my boyfriend. He nodded. "It suits him."

We got out of bed after that and got ready to go to Eric's parent's house. They lived the opposite side of Shreveport, but they had relocated into a quiet estate with a golf course. According to Pam, Mr. Northman played 18 hole games each day, and Mrs. Northman had discovered the brewery attached to the club, and was now a red wine addict.

But they were still together and still happily married. I knew Eric saw them ever few weeks, dropping by and providing his mother with new wines, and his father with new golf shirts. But he never talked about the visits, or hardly mentioned his folks unless he was on the phone to Pam. I never asked about them, even though they treated me like their own daughter when I was in high school and college. I was actually scared of what they'd think of Eric and I dating. Pam didn't mind, and to be honest, I hadn't really thought of her opinion before I started. But Peter and Mary Northman had outspoken opinions. And what they thought always influenced Eric's and Pam's actions.

Of course their opinions of me were always high as one of Pam's friends. But I wasn't sure of how they would see me as their only son's girlfriend. We'd only been dating for a short while and I'd rather wait until I was sure that Eric and I were a stable couple before the formal introductions to the elder Northman's.

Eric buying me Buddy seemed pretty official to me though. He was my love puppy.

We cleaned up the lounge room a bit, and set the table for a lunch with the Northman family, excluding Pam unfortunately. But that meant it would only be his parent's and his uncle Andrew.

I was comfortable enough with them though. Eric had bought his parents a new scotch tumbler set, and I provided them with horrible Christmas jumpers.

When I'd first learnt how to knit, I'd made everyone I knew an itchy, red and green jumper at Christmas time. Of course I was only about 19, so I thought it was a wonderful present. My gran had just passed away, and she had plenty of wool and hooks around the house, so I had decided to take up the hobby of knitting in her absence. To say the least I was horrible. I could make jumpers and scarfs. I even provided Mr. Northman with a cover for his golf clubs. Unfortunately though, I didn't understand the gist of patterns and pictures, so when I had tried to stitch giant love hearts onto Peter and Mary's hand knitted sweaters, it had turned into a giant pink blob.

Every year, I had tried to provide snowmen, reindeer, candy canes and even mistletoe. But they end up turning into horrible blobs of colour.

I'd stopped trying to patterns on my Christmas sweaters a long time ago, but the Northman parents found it so amusing, and they actually wore their sweater all year long according to Pam. So it became a tradition. Eric had watched me make them this year, and he stared in wonder at the craft. I completed them both in a week and a half, which I thought was impressing considering all the cakes I had made in between that time, but he had gotten bored eventually, and preferred mixing batter and icing cakes.

Eric had gotten his uncle Andrew a bottle of scotch this year. I liked his uncle Andrew, he was lovely to me all throughout my childhood and was one of the few people who didn't look at me differently after my family died. I had gotten him a gold tie and matching cufflinks knowing how much time he spent at the casino.

**Eric's POV**

I could tell that Sookie was nervous about me introducing her as my girlfriend to my parents. But I knew they would be pleased.

I'd told Sookie that if we were to have children, they would be blonde haired and blue eyed (with big heads as she had put.) And my mother would want a ring on her finger for a reason as little as that.

But it was they're Sookie, the kind, wonderful, charming Sookie.

She was amazing. I saw Buddy in a pet store window and I knew how much she would love him. He was the last pup out of his litter, and smaller than the rest of his brothers and sisters. I wouldn't have stopped if it weren't for the way he looked at me. I thought it was creepy at first, but then I realized something was different about him and I realized what it was.

He didn't have brown eyes like the other puppies. He had blue eyes. Big blue eyes. That stared into my own.

He reminded me of Sookie almost immediately, and I knew that he was meant to be hers and eventually ours when we moved in together.

And I was sure that it would happen. Maybe not now, I wasn't even planning her to live with me anytime soon. It's just I loved being around her, she made me smile no other and it hurt to spend time away from her. When we weren't together, we were either on the phone, or texting. When she was working, or vice versa, we would email each other stupid jokes. She would send me bar jokes. I would find dessert/bakers jokes. (They are NOT easy to find!) When we ran out of material and were still on clock, we would try and find the most dim witted blonde jokes.

The other day I woke up to a morning email from her. It read…

_A blonde woman was walking down the street with her right breast hanging out._

_A policeman walks past and stops her, "Excuse me miss, but you do realize that I can arrest you for indecent exposure,"_

_She looks confused and asks what he is talking about._

_"Well... you're breast is hanging out." He answers._

_The woman looks down at her chest and looks up in a state of panic. "OH MY LORD!" she screams. "I LEFT MY BABY ON THE BUS!"_

_I hope you have a wonderful day Mr. Northman. Don't leave anything at home. X_

When I had gotten home that night though, she had been knitting one of her disastrous Christmas sweaters for my parents though. I found it so odd that my Sookie could wake up in the morning as a comedian, and finish her day, doing old lady activities.

But we always went to sleep in each other's arms. We had spend maybe 5 nights separately since the night Pam left, and they were mostly in the first week. We both figured out a system where we could be together each night, and I was hiring a manager for The Court soon, so I would barely have to go into work at all and I could be with Sookie more.

I knew she wanted to do online orders as well, depending on how successful her rates were over the next few months would depend on the future of Hales.

I saw how stresses she was about work and her usual drive to Shreveport at the beginning of the week, so I decided to repaint her white picket fence for her. She had broken down in tears and thanked me for it, even though I did it out of boredom, (watching her knit my parents' sweater got dull after a while).

Her eyes had lit up when she saw Buddy on Christmas morning, and I contained my urge to giggle when she got me a new coffee machine. I was using sachets as of late since my bean grinder had died. And sachet coffee is horrible coffee. This machine had the grinder on top. It turned out to be useful. I bought her, her favourite flavor coffee beans without thinking she wouldn't be able to drink it at my house. But she had solved it for me.

I watched her rush around the house in a panic trying to organize everything perfectly, but I don't think she realized that my parents had visited us every year, and were used to walking through beer cans on the floor.

I heard the doorbell ring as Sookie was beaching a bathroom and let my parents inside. They greeted me as usual with a kiss on the fore head from my mum, and a handshake/ pat on the back from my dad.

"Darling, whose car is in the driveway? I don't recognize it?" my mum asked as her eyes scanned the room. "And why is your house clean?"

I cleared my throat and stepped aside. "My girlfriends here,"

My mum looked curious and of course she would be. And I thought I saw a look of disappointment on her face before it turned neutral.

"Pamela said that apart from Andrew, only Sookie and you would be here."

I smiled at my mum, giving her a knowing look, but I still don't think it was enough. I heard Buddy yap from the bathroom, and Sookie laughed. Within a second they both raced into the lounge room, Sookie making kissy faces at her new dog.

She saw my parents and immediately straightened up, taking off her bleaching gloves and resting them on the coffee table.

"Mary, Peter, I haven't seen you since last Thanksgiving!" she squealed, and raced in to give my mother a hug, and my dad a kiss on the cheek. They both blushed at her hello and returned her embrace.

My mum let her go and looked at me sternly. "A month ago, you didn't have a girlfriend, and now she's at a family gathering. Where is this girl?"

Sookie blushed deeply and looked at me. I winked at her.

"You're looking at her." I said calmly.

I saw my mum's jaw drop and my father chuckle before my dear mother tackled Sookie and planted her with kisses all over her face.

"Oh, this is fantastic. Finally a nice girl that is worthy of my dear Eric. Oh, and you're so sweet to everyone, I can't imagine how lovely you must be to him. Lord, imagine how adorable you're children are going to be, and how happy my Pamela will be when she stay with you both when she visits instead of having to divide you both. Oh dear, I'm so happy for you, I can't imagine how happy you are both going to be.." my mother gushed. I blew Sookie a kiss and she looked so relieved that she had approval. But both Pam and I knew that it wouldn't be a problem.

In case she didn't get the hint from me buying her a dog for Christmas, I wanted her around for a bit longer than anyone else I know.

I didn't just hand out eight hundred dollar puppies to every woman in my life.

Three Hours Later

All of us had snacked on homemade Yorkshire puddings, trifles, Waldolf salad and a cheese platter for a while, waiting for my uncle Andrews arrival.

But he never showed.

We rang, and rang. Waited for 3 hours. But nothing.

So we ate without him. We all loved my uncle, but he was the opposite of my father. He never settled down and got happily married. He never had children and drove a successful business.

He was known for being a womanizing old man, a sugar daddy to some. He gambled, and he was good at it. Good enough that he didn't need to work a job like most normal people to make a career, and greedy enough that he wanted to a full time job to make extra money on top of what he already earned. It was a job at the casino, but at least it was a job.

He was dirty, and unreliable, couldn't prioritize his life in order if his life depended on it. But he was a good man. He loved his family and they loved him back despite the flaws.

It was only after we had finished our plate of Sookie's roast turkey that we turned on the TV.

My mother was trying to bribe her into cooking the roast every year from now onwards, and as usual, my father was making small talk with me. This year it was about Sookie instead of gold though. He was telling me how proud I was when I saw Sookie's face fall.

I'd stood up to go and comfort her automatically when I turned to see what she was so upset about. Tears were rolling down her face and I saw my mother's eyes become teary. The TV.

Andrew Northman's name and face flashed across the screen and I saw the police cars in the background. His Silver X5, had been hit by a truck in a side on collision. And he was gone.

_The Deceased: Andrew Northman_

I's never lost any of my family ever before. Apart from my grandparents, but I was only a child, I didn't speak at the time, so I didn't grieve. Sookie's hand gripped my own in comfort and I looked at her.

She had the salt water running down her face in streams and her other hand gripped onto my mothers. I dropped her hand in repulse. She shouldn't feel sorry for me, she'd lost family before, and so it shouldn't hurt for her.

Andrew wasn't even her own family, and she shouldn't feel pain when she lost people anymore, so she shouldn't cry. The only reason she would is if she were crying for me. I didn't want that. I walked to my room, passing Buddy on the way. He sat on the rug in the dining room, staring at me with his intense blue eyes.

Freak dog.

I walked straight past him and into the bedroom. I didn't cry when I lied down on my bed. I just stared at the ceiling.

My uncle had just died, and Sookie had cried before me. I still wasn't crying. I would never see my uncle again, and I wasn't crying. I was overcome with guilt. I let it eat at me before I drifted off to sleep.

I awoke to my bedroom door opening in the slightest and Sookie sneaking in. I didn't think I would have noticed since no light came in with her, but Buddy rushed on through and jumped on the bed. Licking my chest and drooling all over me. I scratched his ears so he settled.

"Do you want something?" I asked Sookie, surprised at how icy and cold my voice came out, as she hadn't made her way over to the bed yet. I could see the outline of her blonde hair, but not her features. She stepped closer to me.

"Are you okay, baby? You kinda stormed off out there?" he voice seemed so sweet compared to mine. Another wave of guilt swept through me for my voice so hard to her.

"I'm fine. You can go home whenever you need Sook." I replied.

I heard her huff, and I knew she probably rolled her eyes at me, but I didn't expect her to strip off her clothes and lay next to me in silence.

"I'm here if you need me." Was all she said, as she got under the covers and rolled away from me.

After about twenty minutes I could tell that the bed had relaxed completely, and I knew that she had fallen asleep. I checked my phone for messages and saw Pam had sent me a sad face with some x's and o's.

My mum had also sent me a message stating that she was in my spare room, and she would see me in the morning.

I also saw a message from Sookie. It had a single love heart on it.

Eugh. I turned my phone off and threw it against a wall. I knew that Sookie cared for me. And I knew she was "adopted" into this family after she lost her own. But she'd already lost her own family. She didn't deserve to lose another.

I felt bad for rejecting her hand in the lounge room before. I thought that she had put it there because she pitied me. But now I realized that she was only comforting me. Guilt again. She wasn't pitying my pain. She may have had her own. Andrew was her friend. She liked him, and accepted who he was. She may not have lost a family member of her own bloodline. But he had been an uncle to her as well.

I got up out of bed and walked to my phone. Checking that it was still alive and working I sent her a simple love heart back, knowing she would check her phone first thing in the morning.

I spooned her from behind, noticing that when I wrapped my arms around her, Buddy growled from his position in her own arms. But after a second, a felt his wet tongue over my palm, so I was allowed to put my arm in his newly claimed territory.


	6. Chapter 6

**Charlainne Harris owns the puppets, I just pull the strings.**

**Sookie POV**

When I had reached out to comfort Eric, he looked so hurt and devastated, I flinched when he shooed me away, but Mary had taken up the position of his hand soon enough. I had my arms wrapped around her and Peter had a grip on her thigh, whispering in her ear that everything was going to be okay.

I knew that Peter was his blood brother, even though Mary was more upset physically. But men seemed to have a problem with showing emotions in public (as displayed by Eric before).

I knew that Peter had been drinking whiskey all evening, and I wasn't going to let Mrs. Northman drive home with her blurred vision, so I made up the guest room for them both, even getting them a new toothbrush each.

They thanked me and hugged me tightly before they went to bed.

I decided to clean up the house again before I went to bed. I generally slept or ate when I was upset. But I was too full from dinner, and didn't want to go in with Eric while he was upset, so I scrubbed instead, even though everything was already clean.

I placed a bowl of wet food and water out for Buddy, who seemed content on following me around the house wherever I went, and lay some paper down for him for his business. I doubted he was toilet trained, but I hoped he was.

I fell asleep on the lounge, On Eric and I's cushion to be precise, and woke up shortly after with the sound of Peter trying to cut some cake during the night. It sounded like he was slaughtering the plate to death so I decided to go out and help him.

I think he was startled by my presence, but smiled and offered me a piece, I denied politely. I knew how much sugar went into that cake to make it sweet, and I don't want that in my body. That was the flaw of being a baker. I knew how bad my goods were for me, so they weren't fun to eat anymore.

"You shouldn't let him hide from you, you know," Peter muffled, trying to finish his mouthful of cake while speaking. I tilted my head in response.

"I'm sorry?" I asked.

He chuckled at me. "Eric you silly, girl. Don't let him hide from you."

I smiled at him. "He's not hiding, Peter. He just needs space to think."

Mr. Northman snorted at my comment but didn't say anything. I wrapped the Snowman cake up in glad wrap and placed in the fridge, getting out two bottles of water and placing one in front of Eric's dad. He nodded in thanks at me.

"Go and sleep next to son. He'll need you when he wakes up in the morning." With that he put his empty plate in the sink, gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek and walked away.

"Oh and Sookie." He called as he was passing through the doorway.

"Mhm."

"Thanks for the sweater. You're getting better at knitting." With that he winked at me and went to join his wife in bed. That left me standing in the kitchen with nothing to do.

I picked up my phone and saw I had a missed call from Pam and a message with her condolences. I wondered whether she would delay her wedding for the funeral, or if she'd still have her New Years wedding.

Thinking about funerals made me think of funeral planning for Andrew. It wasn't my place to organize, or have an input in the least, but a small part of me felt partly responsible for him dying. He was on his way to see us, if he hadn't have come to visit, he would still be alive.

I replied to Pam telling her I would call her in the morning, and wished her a Merry Christmas since I hadn't talked to her all day. I also sent Eric a simple heart, not knowing whether to sleep next to him tonight or not. I parked myself on the lounge for a while. It was only early in the night so I wasn't feeling tired yet, but Buddy obviously was since he was curled up on my lap, fast asleep.

I didn't think it was possible to fall in love with something so quickly, but I was a sucker for miniature things, all girls were though.

I'd spent at least 5 years of my life knowing Eric, and not even now was I in love with him. I didn't think I was any who. I loved things about him, a lot of things about him. But I couldn't picture us being together forever. I'd never been able to imagine that with anyone though, I didn't even know what 'happily-ever after' looked like in modern society. But if I was going to share my perfect life with anyone, I guess I'd have Eric in.

He'd be the husband of mine that would make breakfast in bed for me every morning, and he'd be the father of my babies (provided the size of the first child's head was a decent size, and I wanted more after), and Him, Buddy and I would live in a house with a white picket fence around it. I know it sounded cliché, and it would probably never happen. But it gave me something to look forward to in the future.

I tried to be quiet as I opened Eric's door. I had decided to sleep next to him after all, taking Peter's advice. But Buddy had rushed into the room and jumped onto the bed. I saw the giant blonde man on the bed move, so I knew he had woken up and sure enough, she asked me what I wanted in a harsh voice and told me I could go home whenever I felt like it.

I knew he was pushing me away, but Peter had told me not to hide from him so I jumped into bed beside him in just my singlet and underwear, knowing I would wake up sore if I kept my jeans and blouse on. He didn't reach out to me when I was snuggled into my side of the bed, and I don't think I expected him to. My new dog curled up next to me, and I the last thing I remember was scratching him before I drifted off to sleep.

I woke up facing Eric, with his big arm draped over me, and him tracing patterns on my back with his hands. I looked up to his face and saw his big blue eyes seep into my own.

I smiled at him, but didn't get a smile back although his hand on my back kept lightly tracing patterns along my skin.

He pulled me closer to him, and I noticed he was naked (as he usually was in the morning), but for once didn't support his usual morning wood. I tucked my face into his body and felt him inhale as breathed in my hair.

"I'm sorry," he whispered to me in the softest voice, completely opposite to his hostility last night. I kissed his chest and whispered that he was forgiven back to him and Buddy jumped in between the small space between our legs.

"He's protective of you already you know," said Eric as I looked up to him. He almost had a smile on his face as he looked at the puppy on the bed.

"How so?"

He rolled his eyes dramatically. "He took defense when my arm went around you last night."

I giggled and made kissy noises at Buddy. Of course his tail started wagging immediately, and even Eric laughed. I raised an eyebrow at him questionably.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

He gripped my hand tightly, and nodded. "I didn't think it would hurt this much."

I bought his hand up to my lips and kissed it. "It'll always hurt Eric, but you'll get used to the pain."

With that I got up, had a shower, made four cups of coffee and rang Pam. I knew she didn't like her uncle. Nothing against him personally, she just didn't like his life choices, yet she was still upset. She had decided to post-pone the wedding, to the 26th of January to give her family some time to settle, and Pam had arranged a New Orleans funeral for the 28th of December. So two days time.

New Orleans was a four hour drive away, but it was fair since the petrol money would equal out to the amount she and Stan would spend on flights.

I wondered why she had made the funeral plans, since he wasn't her favourite member, but she insisted that her parents wouldn't want to do it, and Eric would probably punch someone in the planning process.

I laughed at her, knowing how frustrated he got when it came to minor detailing things.

When I asked him what coloured scarf he wanted his Snowman wanted to have on his Christmas cake, he answered "_Who the fuck cares?_" and walked away.

I sighed and chose blue, knowing that all men were impatient, and it wasn't a bad thing that he took his aggression out on un-important things. It was better than him getting angry at how much the electricity bills were, and how long I took in the shower (like Bill had).

After all, I didn't really have anything for him to get angry about. I cooked and cleaned, I didn't have any drama in my life. We even made an arrangement for toilet seats. I would leave it up at his house if he put it down at mine, it sounded stupid when we made the agreement, but it was actually the best thing I ever agreed on doing.

Peter was teary in the morning; I gave him a hug as soon as he stumbled out of the guest room and handed him a mug of caffeine. Mary followed him out two seconds after. I got them both towels to use in the spare shower, and I was glad I cleaned the main bathroom as well as Eric's ensuite. Since Pam threw up everywhere on her last visit, the smell of vomit had stuck to the tiles until last week.

Pam called her brother, and he put her on speakerphone for the benefit of Peter and Mary, they exchanged Christmas pleasantries before discussing funeral details. She was right when she told me that her parents wouldn't want to organize everything, Mary wrote the time and place with a shaky hand, and Peter stared off into the distance, and Eric kept scrunching his fists up while talking about flowers and seating arrangements. I rubbed his back soothingly to try and calm him down and he kissed me on the cheek.

At least that meant he wasn't mad at me.

The funeral came and went. I tucked Eric into his suit and tied his tie for him. I held his hand the whole procession, and he finally shed the tears he'd been holding for three days. His parents were in and out of his house constantly, and Pam and Stan appeared and disappeared in what seemed like minutes. The brief glimpse of the future Mrs. Stan Davies, told me that she was embarrassed to be seen by her family. You could see her baby bump. It was small, but none-the-less, it was there, and clearly visible in the tight pants suit she had worn.

Eric had rested his hand upon it whilst he hugged her, but she nudged it to the side, not wanting attention drawn to her body. Stan looked pleased as punch though and gave me a knowing smile.

After the ceremony, Mary had insisted on a wake at the golf club, which I didn't want to attend. It seemed Eric had the same idea as he whisked me away to his house without a second thought. We sprawled out on his couch for what seemed like hours, reminiscing the past, and Eric laughing about his memories of the late uncle Andrew.

I learned against him on our cushion and ran my fingers through his hair soothingly. It must have calmed him as he was soon asleep. I put the heater on in the lounge room, laid a blanket over my blonde boyfriend, turned the TV off and decided to drive back to my house in Bon Temps. Not before feeding Buddy (who I decided was staying at Eric's, since I wasn't sure if there were gators in the river behind my house) and wrote Eric a note explaining I needed to check my mail and throw out the vegetables in my fridge before they got moldy. I also took the key off my chain and put it on top of the note, hoping he would get the point and come to see me when he felt like it.

So I drove home. It seemed like forever since I'd driven down the 1-20, but the drive was horrible. The last few times I'd drove down the road, It's always been to get to Eric's, or get to work. I can't remember the last time I'd drove there to simply get home. And right now, home wasn't good enough for me, the thought of turning back and waiting for Eric to wake up was tempting, but I knew that I had at least two bills due, and I wasn't sure if my rates were due yet.

Soon enough though, after what seemed like a 2 hour trip, I was fetching my spare key from the letterbox, along with my large pile of mail (I groaned at the thought of how many bills I had), and was making my way around my old farmhouse opening windows, to air out the stale air.

Sure enough, the electricity, water and cell phone bill were due. Not to mention the council rates (Which were higher than last year's). I went online and paid them though, thanking god I didn't have a mortgage, looking at the sum of money I had left in my account I smiled. Considering how I hadn't been into Hale's in what seemed like weeks, I was pleased with the amount of money I had. Don't get me wrong, I was no millionaire, but I was comfortable. Eric was too (he was closer to the millionaire title though). But he worked hard for his money, and so did I, so we deserved to be financially _comfortable. _

It felt so good to relax for a while, when Gran was around, we worked so hard to get the business up and running, and then we had to make repairs to the house. Not to mention every time one appliance was replaced, it seemed like a new one was breaking. Jason wasn't happy when we only had enough money to buy a new fridge instead of a TV.

After I paid the bills, I took out the milk, vegetables and fruit to the trash, I dusted every surface in the house, swept, mopped, did some weeding and even popped over to the shop to make sure there weren't any eggs or cakes left out over the break.

I went home after and decided to order in for the night, food wise. I'd just finished ordering my Chinese on the phone, when I heard a knock at the door.

As much as I wished it was Eric, I knew that he had my key now, so he could just let himself in, so I was disappointed that Bill Compton was standing by my front door.

I just rolled my eyes at him dramatically. He was standing there in one of his ridiculous pale blue suits, his hair slicked back smoothly and his sideburns still an inch past his earlobe. You could put him in a retro/ disco music video, and he would fit right it. Sure it was fine at home, and in Bon Temps, since everyone is old fashioned and no one looks twice at what you wear. But when I was with Bill Compton, he used to take me out to dates wearing that type of clothing, and it was embarrassing to say in the least.

He nodded once at me before trying to step in the doorway of my home.

"You're supposed to wait to be invited in, before coming into someone's home." I snapped.

He rolled his eyes at me and pushed past anyways. "Where have you been Sookie? You haven't been home in almost a week." he stated as he paced through the corridor towards the kitchen. I closed the front door behind me and followed him, not wanting him wandering alone through my house.

"Why's it any of your business where I've been Bill, and how do you know how long I've been away for?"

He laughed. "I'm the closest neighbor you have silly, and I noticed your mail has been untouched for the last few days."

I called bullshit straight away. He may be my closest neighbor yes, but we still lived on opposite sides of Hummingbird Lane, he would have to drive the opposite end of the street to check my mail box.

"Is that so?" I asked. He nodded simply.

"I've been thinking about you lately, Sookie. About how horrible our relationship was."

If I didn't know Bill Compton for so many years, I might have believed that his visit was merely a check-in on his ex-girlfriend.

But I'd known him for long enough to know that when he said,

"I've been thinking about you"- he meant: I just got dumped and haven't had sex in a week, I'm horny.

And when he said, "About how horrible our relationship was" wasn't an acceptance that he was a bad boyfriend.

For the however many years that he and I were together, he was cheating on me with his sister's friend for half that time. And even worse, when he got her pregnant (at the minor age of 17, may I add), he refused to admit that cheating was bad and managed to blame me for his actions.

"_It was not my fault, Sookie. She tempted me with her skirts and lacy underwear. She excited me. You don't excite me at all. When was the last time you actually wanted sex. You don't want it at all, it feels like I'm forcing you to take your clothes off."_

_I'd stomped my foot and walked out at this point._

"_See my point you selfish whore," he'd yelled at me. "You're running away. There's no fight, no drama, no chase. You just run. It's exactly the same in the bedroom, Sookie. If you're not going to fight me, or put some anger into things, it's going to bore me eventually. You made me bored Sookie. She was exciting."_

Eugh. I shook the memory out of my head.

"No Bill. You've been thinking about sex, not me. And quite frankly, you were the horrible thing in our relationship."

He laughed again. I didn't know why, I wasn't saying anything remotely funny.

That was when he grabbed my arm and pulled me close to him. "I think you should leave, right away William Compton," I spat. "And you should let me go straight away."

Another laugh. This one made my skin crawl though.

**I'm sorry dear readers, but I'm leaving it here for now. Thanks to the people that have held onto the story!  
>It takes a while for my Sookie POV's to update, but my Eric chapters are so much easier to write :)<br>**


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